


A Big Larry Musical - Act 1

by SeiFrancy



Series: A Big Larry Musical [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Blow Jobs, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Louis and Harry are not, Louis dates nick for like half of a paragraph, Louis is flamboyant, M/M, Oh it's a musical, Pining, Ready to Run from Four, Recreational Drug Use, Rimming, Sex tags, So don't worry, So i Think I have to tag the albums?, Take me Home, Up All Night, You&I from Midnight Memories, Ziall are filthy rich, duh - Freeform, harry is popular, it's just pot anyway, like a lot of pining, this is important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-14 23:02:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 34,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5762263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeiFrancy/pseuds/SeiFrancy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day Louis meets Harry at Niall Horan's party, he doesn't know his life is gonna change into a Disney Channel Original Movie.<br/>He's gonna realise it very soon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Party

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my wonderful betas Chaima, Mena and Stephanie for the great help, and my twin because she listened to me ranting about this for days.  
> English is not my first language so please be kind to me, thank you so much!  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Songs in this Chapter are "C'mon C'mon" and "Live While We're Young".  
> Sing along or listen to the actual song if you can, you'll enjoy it better.

It's the end of summer, before the beginning of the last year of school. Louis is inside the train station, on the glass walk that connect the Manchester Arena to the actual railway, looking down at the people walking in and out of shops and restaurants, sighing slightly.

Two girls pass behind him, giggling and whispering and giggling again, glancing at him in blatant interest. Louis' had a grow spurt during the vacation months but he's not used to it. Yet.

Of course he didn't grown in height, he's as short as always and a little too tiny for his own taste, but his cheekbones are more defined, a bit of scruff appeared on his chin and his ass and thighs... well they are still big as ever, not that he likes them but... perks of being a football player.

He's not very thrilled to begin the new year though. Louis is not exactly popular, he likes a few people and they like him back. Most of his friends comes from the Drama Club and the Football team. His very best friends are Stan Lucas, who Louis knows since he was born, shortly followed by Zayn Malik, star of their team and the finest street artist Louis has ever seen. They met in year 5, during one of Louis' first detentions, and they bonded immediately. Their moms also became friends and since then it's always been the three of them.

Last year though a new member joined the unholy trinity, who became the unholy trinity and one good guy thank God, when Liam Payne, a transfer student from Wolverhampton, joined the football team, proving himself to be an amazing goal keeper, a great drinking buddy and the only one who's apparently capable to contain Louis loudness, with strong words and gentle manners.

Louis is, in fact, the loudest person in the whole world. Universe maybe. He has always thought that his physical appearance was too flamboyant, too much on the gay side to fit in a normal high school society so he tried to emphasize it, wearing striped shirts and braces and glowing like the fucking sun every single day. He also used his natural sassyness to talk back to whoever tried to mock him, so nobody in school really bothers him for his sexuality, which is a relief because he had heard so many stories growing up and he is really happy to not be a victim of bullism.

He was in Manchester that day, searching for the right outfit to wear for Niall Horan's party that night.   
Niall is one of the players of the school Tennis team, really talented, filthy rich and probably the only person in the galaxy almost as loud as Louis.   
Louis' not that happy to go to the party, but Zayn talked him to go, because of fucking course Zayn has to have a crush on one of the most unreachable person on Earth. He could have tried to catch Harry Styles, just in case Niall wasn't enough of a challenge to him.  
Harry is Niall's partner in tennis double matches. 6'2'' of toned body, soft curls, lovely dimples and the greenest eyes Louis has ever seen. Not that he's been watching.

Styles is the epitome of the straight sporty 18 years old, always surrounded by skinny cheerleaders and some other samples of the school female population. Louis has never really talked to him, just a couple of words here and there, but he doesn't despise the guy, he's just a bit too much popular and apparently self-centered for Louis' liking.  
Louis comes out of the shop with a bag full of new clothes, red trousers, a blue button down with a white neck and white braces with red and blue stripes. Good enough for Niall's big soiree, which isn't going to be the usual pool party in the regular Horan style but a proper luncheon set in the famous Liv Club in Peter Street in Manchester. Horan rented the Club (what money can't do nowadays) and invited the whole school to join him to celebrate the end of summer.   
Louis sighs. He really doesn't want to go... he's going to end up sitting at one of the booths or the sofas, watching the suggestive and colorful lights on the ceiling and glaring at Harry Styles griding on the girl of the moment. Which is not where his thoughts were supposed to end, but there you go.   
Styles. Hot annoying Styles.   
What Louis would do to him is noone’s business but his own.  
Louis' laugh echoes in the big hall inside the Manchester Arena. He enters McDonald's with his smile still wide on his mouth, thinking about the shitty night that was waiting for him.

***

The party has started like 45 minutes before and Harry has just arrived at the Club, fashionably late as it's proper for someone in his position inside the school society.   
He is dressed with the tightest black skinny jeans he owns, a white long sleeved button down, all open down to his navel, and his sparkling black boots that he loves very much. His curls are wildly styled on the top of his head in a little bun, some of them still escaping the little knot to spring free around his ears and forehead.

He has picked Taylor as his date for the night, which maybe wasn't his best choice because she's annoying as fuck at the moment, talking about her ex boyfriends (yes plural, wtf) and how every single one of them broke her heart and her dreams to build a family.   
Maybe they ran away because she seems able to complain about every single thing around her, from her dress (Do you think it's too tight Harry? Or too short? Are my legs looking good?) to the fact that the limo Niall's sent for them isn't "The right tone of black". What the hell does it even mean?

She grabs his arm with long painted nails and Harry noticed she has big hands for a girl. She's very tall, with neverending legs and a cute smile. Sometimes she's fun and nice and she's not food obsessed like all the other cheerleaders, so Harry thought that she would have made a great date.   
Never been so wrong his whole life.

The minute they enter the Club, all the eyes focus on them, from the people on the dance floor to the one sitting at the booths or on the little grey sofas in the corner. Niall greets them as soon as they reach the DJ console where Zayn Malik of the football team is mixing music with a professional look on his handsome face. Harry's eyes start wandering among the people in the crowd and first he spots Liam Payne, dancing with Sophia Smith, captain of the Mathlets, and less than two feet from him Stan Lucas, talking to a girl Harry doesn't know, but maybe he has seen her in one of the Drama Club productions.   
His heart starts to beat faster. If Payne, Malik and Lucas are there, HE has to be there too. He keeps looking at the crowd on the floor, and then he moves to the booths and the sofas but nothing in sight. He must have been looking away for a while because Taylor is becoming even more annoying than before, trying to keep his focus on her, but Harry can't really stop his searching now, because he's been obsessed with Louis Tomlinson for over a year now and he might be there somewhere and Harry is totally going to find him, ask him to dance and let their bodies do the rest.

"If you don't look at me I'll go home with Calvin, i promise" she tries, but Harry isn't listening anymore.   
"Go if you want" he tells her, just a fraction after his eyes have landed on the best pair of legs and the greatest bum he's ever seen in his life.   
Harry has found Louis. It's time to make his move.

***

Louis is fucking bored. And pretty annoyed too.  
As predicted, his friends abandoned him to follow their crushes (Zayn so blatantly into Niall that even a blind man with no ears would have noticed) and Louis ended up in a corner dancing by himself. He doesn’t have a date of his own because the only one around that seems interested in him is Nick Grimshaw and no. Not that Nick isn’t an attractive guy, but Louis’ type has less nose and more curls. Also Nick declined Niall’s invite (and tried to convince Louis to do the same several times) since he heard that Horan chose Zayn over him to be the Dj at the party.

Louis is in his corner, a beer in hand, when the crowd freeze all of a sudden.   
He turns himself towards the doors and sees Harry Styles entering with none other than the Prom Queen herself, Taylor Swift, and her infinite legs.

He shrugs and turns his eyes away, focusing on the music and the other people around him  
After what could be a good 20 minutes, Louis starts moving from his corner to go to the bar and get another beer, just to find someone behind him with a beer for him already in hand and a big smile on his handsome face.

Why is Harry Styles offering him the bottle smiling like he is looking at the fucking sun?

“Hello,” the boy drawls, with his low voice, speaking directly in Louis’ ear.  
“Uhm, Hi,” Louis replies, looking at him half in awe and half with what he hopes is a questioning glare.  
Harry gives him the beer he was holding, his smile growing wider by the minute.  
“Where is Taylor?” Louis asks abruptly, his heart beating a bit too fast, his palms sweating and his eyes wandering on Harry’s face and body.

 _“The one that I came with, she got to go.”_  
Is Harry Styles singing to him? Like, is this a weird dream?  
 _“But you look amazing standing alone.”_  
What? He might be drunker than he looks because wtf?  
 _“So come on, come on move a little closer now.”_  
Closer? To Harry? Like now? In front of everyone? No way.  
 _“Come on, come on ain't no way you're walkin' out.”_  
Why is Harry Styles’ arm around his waist now?   
_“Come on, come on show me what you're all about.”_

Louis’ most certainly going to die very soon.   
Harry is holding him against his body, his arms around his waist and he is so big and muscular and Louis’ hands start wandering on his body and what the hell since when they have a mind of their own?

 _“Yeah, I been watching you all night.”_  
“You’ve been here for like 20 minutes.”  
 _“There's something in your eyes.”_  
“Yeah it’s a fucking elephant.”  
 _“Saying come on, come on and dance with me baby.”_  
“Oh my God Styles, you have no chill.”  
 _“Yeah, The music is so loud.”_  
“You’re not winning the Nobel this year, uh Styles?”  
 _“I wanna be yours now.”_  
“No okay, this is going too far, let me go please.”  
 _“So come on, come on and dance with me baby.”_

Louis is so embarrassed, Harry is holding him so tight and he really doesn’t know what to do... his hands come once again to help him, along with his arms which what the fuck are they doing lacing themselves on Harry’s neck? Oh my God this is not real, this is a dream and now Louis’ gonna close his eyes and wake up in his bed with a boner and no one will never know about this.  
Louis closes his eyes but nothing happens. The music’s still there, Harry’s still singing and the people around them are sort of… dancing along with Harry’s song? Holy shit this is even weirder.

  
Harry’s mind is going crazy.  
Louis looks so good, and they’re dancing close to each other and he is so beautiful that Harry wants to sing him all the songs of the world.

 _“The one that I came with didn't know how to move.”_  
Harry knows that Taylor is the cheerleaders’ captain, but that’s not the point.  
 _“The way that you let your hair down I can tell that you do.”_  
Louis fixing his fringe is one of the most erotic thing ever and Harry is so turned on right now that all he can do is keep singing and holding him tight and oh this is gonna be a great great night, he can feels it in his bones.

_“So come on, come on, move a little closer now_   
_Come on, come on ain't no way you're walking out_   
_Come on, come on Show me what you're all about_   
_Yeah I been watching you all night_   
_There's something in your eyes_   
_Saying come on, come on and dance with me baby_   
_Yeah The music is so loud_   
_I wanna be yours now_   
_So come on, come on and dance with me baby.”_

Harry is dead and in Heaven. Louis’ eyes are the bluest blue ever seen and he is smiling and holding onto him like his life depends on it and yeah, maybe Harry is being a little overdramatic here, but he has the boy of his dreams in his arms and he can’t be happier than he is right now.

 _“Every step I take I feel it more and more_  
 _He's calling out he's looking good.”_  
This is the hottest thing he’s ever done, plastering himself on the shorter guy’s back and moving forward while he’s grinding back, his arms pulled up to hold onto Harry’s neck, pulling at his hair, his bun long gone, his wild curls spread on his own shoulders.   
_“My heart is racing_  
 _He's turning around_  
 _I reach for his hand and I say.”_  
Louis turns in Harry’s arms, facing him with wide glossy eyes. Harry takes his hand and brings it to his lips, kissing his palm slightly, like a caress more than a kiss. This is too good to be true.

_“Hey, I been watching you all night_   
_There's something in your eyes_   
_Saying come on, come on and dance with me baby_   
_Yeah, The music is so loud_   
_I wanna be yours now_   
_So come on, come on and dance with me baby_   
_Oooh, Come on, come on_   
_Oooh, Come on, come on_   
_Oooh, Come on, come on_   
_And dance with me baby.”_

  
The song is over, the dancing crowd is back to their own business, and Louis and Harry are standing still, both panting loudly, staring at each other, without saying a word.  
Louis has lost himself in the middle of the first refrain and feels so carefree and happy and all the positive things in the world. He also feels scared because that’s Harry Styles, the Prom King, the most handsome and wanted boy of the whole school.   
And apparently he doesn’t want to bang all the girls he puts his eyes on, as Louis has always thought.  
He most likely wants to bang Louis if the bulge in his trousers has any say in it.  
They keep staring at each other for a while, just smiling and holding hands, and Louis for a sec thinks that Harry is going to kiss him, he can feel his breath on his own lips but all of a sudden the music stops and Niall’s voice fills the room, startling them and ruining the moment.  
“Damn Horan…” Louis mutters, while Harry says something about not being able to win the tennis tournament if he breaks his partner’s arms.

“Hello beautiful people!!!” Niall shouts into the microphone, causing a loud whistle to roar from the amplifiers and everyone to put their hands on their own ears.  
“Oops, sorry!” Niall says, laughing happily to the crowd.  
“Are you having fun?” he asks, keeping the mic a little bit further from his mouth.  
The crowd bellows in response, some jumping up and down, others raising their glasses or beers over their heads.   
“Best party ever!” Harry cheers, his arm tightening around Louis’ shoulder.

Louis raises his beer and snuggles further into Harry’s touch, hoping to not wake up, in the remote case this is really a dream. He’s not sure about it yet, everything’s so unreal, like a fairy tale or a Disney Channel original movie.

Harry takes his hand and leads him to the booths, dropping on one of the soft benches, right beside Liam and Sophia, like they’ve known each other for years. Stan and Laura, his date, are sitting on the other side of the table and the four of them are looking at both him and Harry like they have suddenly grown an extra head.   
Harry drags Louis on his lap and smiles wide, keeping his strong arms around Louis’ tiny waist.

“What’s happening here?” Liam inquires, a suspicious look in his eyes, over protective as he always is with his own friends.  
“Uhm…” Louis starts, but he really doesn’t know how to explain to his friends why he and Harry are acting like they’ve been boyfriends since ever.  
“Styles, what the fuck do you think you’re doing with my mate?” Liam completely ignores Louis attempts to clarify the situation, his dark eyes focused on Harry’s green ones.  
“Calm down Payne.”  
The two guys look at each other for a very long moment, Harry smiling wide and Liam frowning in concern. Or Anger, Louis’ not sure about it.  
“We just danced together for a bit and I think we get along pretty well,” Louis states, looking hopeful at his friends. He really wants this thing with Harry, whatever it is, he wants to feel his body engulfing him and he wants to hear his voice, and dance again and sing with him. And he needs his friends on his side for this, because he feels so happy and all he can think about is how much he wants to share this happiness with them.

“Are you sure about this Louis?” Stan whispers with a worried smile painting his face.  
Stan knows everything about Louis, he knows how much Louis likes Harry, he had a crush on him since the first time he focused on the curly boy during 10th grade. Harry was laughing with Niall near the tennis fields. It wasn’t the first time he had seen him, but that particular laugh hit his heart like anything else has ever did before. It sounded like heaven, the most beautiful noise Louis has ever heard in his whole life.  
After that he spent too many nights wishing to find the strength to approach the popular guy, fantasizing about their first kiss and hug and also jerking off several times looking at Harry’s shirtless pics on the tennis club website.

But Harry always seemed so distant, so unreachable and, most of all, so fucking straight, that Louis’ hopes started to fade little by little, until his crush became more a bother than a thing that made his heart beating faster.

That night, though, everything is brighter and happier and he can’t really stop smiling like an idiot, less than ever now that his friends are trying to actually talk to Harry and Harry is replying politely, making some bad puns here and there and Louis’ most definitely gonna explode very soon.

“Do you wanna dance?” Harry asks Louis, his dimples showing, his eyes sparkling, while Zayn changes the song into something softer.  
“Did you just text Niall to tell Zayn to play a romantic song?” Louis demands, stealing the taller boy’s phone from his hands and peeking at the sent messages.  
“Oh my God you did!!!”   
Louis fakes a scandalized look, lifting his hand to cover his mouth and making his eyes larger.  
“Ehi!” Harry protests, taking his phone back “We’re not official yet and you’re already spying on me!”   
Louis blushes like mad, cursing mentally against Liam and Stan, who are trying unsuccessfully to conceal their laughters hiding behind their girlfriends.

“Let’s dance,” Louis orders, getting up from Harry’ lap and guiding him towards the center of the dance floor.  
“Mh, bossy. I like it,” Harry mutters, following him without a question.

They start to dance again, slowly, the rhythm of the song pulling them closer, the deep voice of Sir Elton John creating the perfect atmosphere.  
And all of a sudden the magic is back, and their lips are just an inch apart, their breaths already mixing when a loud crash and a big curse crack them apart for the second time that night.

“So this is why you were avoiding me?” Taylor yells, looking madly at Harry and the curly boy really wants her to be a him so he can kick his ass for interrupting their kiss.  
“No Taylor,” he replies instead “I was avoiding you because you don’t like me, you came to the party with me just to show me off to the other girls and, most of all, because I really don’t like you either. You have too much upstairs and too few downstairs, if you know what I mean.”  
He winks at Louis while saying the last few words and enjoys the red covering the older boy’s cheeks. How someone can be so cute and hot at the same time? It’s really unfair.  
He was lost in Louis’s eyes when a hard purse covered in fake diamonds hits him right where it hurts the most. Harry falls on his knees, cupping his poor balls, while Taylor marches out of the Club, Calvin running behind her, calling her name multiple times.

“Are you okay?”   
“What do you think Niall?” he snaps, glaring at his friends.  
Louis comes near him holding a little ice bag made with Sophia’s scarf and some ice he must have taken at the bar, while Harry was on the floor crying in pain.  
“Here,” he says, handing him the ice, a little smile on his lips.  
God Harry really needs to kiss him before dawn or he’s gonna die in frustration.  
“Thank you.”   
Harry puts the thing on his groin and sighs in relief. Louis hugs him tenderly, moving his tiny hand along his spine.   
“I thought I was going to be on my knees for a whole different reason tonight,” he purrs straight in Louis’ ear and God his reaction is nothing less than spectacular, the blush, the freeze, Harry wants to wreck him and wants to be wrecked by him at the same time.  
People start to go back to party but Louis’ friends and Niall are still all around him, looking worried and Harry feels very good because it really looks like his own little circle has just gained five new awesome friends and, he strongly hopes, a boyfriend too.

“So” Niall begins, looking at the other guys “What are you doing after the party?”  
“I don’t know… What you had in mind?”  
Zayn’s answer was a bit too quick, and his cheeks are far too pink for it to be caused by the heat in the club. Harry thinks he is cute, his crush on Niall is so obvious and Niall looks so oblivious, oh Harry’s gonna have great fun with these two. His Irish friend is not so confident as everybody thinks he is, he has his moments and he never, never understands when someone wants to be more than friend with him.  
“I thought the party would have lasted till morning?” Harry questions, clearly remembering Niall being overexcited to be able to spend the whole night out with his parents’ permission.  
“Uhm, actually we have to be out no later than midnight… The club asked to get the rooms cleared because there is a late bachelorette party at 1AM for some Lord’s daughter… I don’t even know who she is…”  
“Niall.”

Harry’s trying so hard to not strangle his best friend but he’s failing and only Louis hand on his back seems able to calm him down a bit. “Do you know it’s fucking 11.15? How can you make all these people go away in 45 minutes when a lot of them are tipsy if not completely drunk?”  
“With a little help from my friends?” Niall pleads, his eyes full of hope.  
“Don’t you dare quoting the Beatles to me Niall Horan,” he replies, but he can’t keep himself from smiling because okay, he might be a disorganized, loud and hyperactive guy sometimes, but he loves him a lot and he really is the best friend in the world.  
“Also that song is about drugs” Zayn adds with a little laugh, while going back to the console.  
“I’ll make an announcement and I’ll send people home. Liam and Stan, please, go around and take car keys from the drunk ones. Niall, you might want to call some cabs to come and retrieve your guests.”  
“O-okay” Niall stutters, before going outside to make a call.  
“And us? What can we do?” Louis asks, pointing at himself and Harry, who’s still on the floor, ice melting between his legs.  
“You can take care of Harry here,” Malik replies with a wink and Harry smiles wide. They still have to kiss after all.

Louis sits beside him and they stay just like that, in silence, enjoying each other’s company and watching their school mates gathering their stuff and start to swarm out of the Club, complaining about stupid rules and deciding where to go next.  
Liam and Stan, helped by Sophia and Laura, are escorting half of the football team out to take the cabs Niall called earlier and Horan himself is hugging Zayn tightly, thanking him profusely for his help.  
Laura and Stan pass by to say their goodbyes and leave the club giggling and holding tight to each other. Louis’ so happy for Stan, he deserves everything good the world has to offer.  
“So, it’s just the six of us left apparently,” Harry states, while lacing his fingers with Louis’.  
The older boy nods and puts his head on Harry’s shoulder.  
“I wish we could stay together a little longer,” Louis murmurs and Harry’s heart jumps because why is Louis thinking they have to end it all now?  
“We can go to Domino’s or Subway to eat something, my treat!” he suggests, his stomach growling in agreement.  
“We could…” Louis answers “But I have to go home early, my mom tomorrow has the morning shift and I have my sisters to look after… the twins use to get up so early…”   
“We can spend the night out then!” Harry replies, crossing his fingers “and tomorrow morning I can come home with you and make animal shaped pancakes for your sisters and then we can put some Disney movie on the telly and take a nap while they’re watching, what d’you think?”

Louis is really tempted. Like a lot. But he’s a bit overwhelmed at the moment and his brain seems to not be working properly because all he can think is HarryHarryHarryHarry and well, that’s not helping him at all.  
“Everybody’s gone!” Niall informs them, grinning at Zayn who grins back to him. The blonde lad has an arm around the other boy waist and Zayn has his own on his shoulder and they look very good together. Louis hopes they’ll work things out very soon, they really make a wonderful couple in his humble opinion.  
“So, can we go now? I want pizza!!!” Niall exclaims and Louis hears Harry mutter a “you always wants pizza,” that makes him laugh out loud.  
“What’s fun?” Liam asks smiling, not as overprotective as he’s been earlier, but Louis can still spot a note of worry on his face and in his voice.  
“Oh nothing!!” Louis replies, squeezing Harry’s hand twice “I’m still not sure if I can come with you, my mom has an early shift tomorrow and you know, someone have to look after the kids and I just... I don’t know…”  
“I can’t stay either,” Sophia adds, Liam turning his head so fast his neck makes a weird noise.  
“What??” Liam asks and she says she’s a bit tired and wants to go to home.  
Louis feels tired too, he wants to stay with Harry but he also wants a shower and something hot to drink before going to sleep.  
He’s thinking about how to tell Harry he decided to go home when, without any notice, Liam starts to sing and dance in front of Sophia.  
Why is everyone singing and dancing tonight instead of talking?   
Louis doesn’t know but judging by the look on Sophia’s face this is going to be very very fun.

  
 _“Hey girl I'm waiting on ya, I'm waiting on ya_  
 _Come on and let me sneak you out_  
 _And have a celebration, a celebration_  
 _The music up, the windows down.”_  
Liam takes Sophia’s hand and let her turn around, dancing with her and smiling like a dumb idiot and laughing and Louis knows Sophia has already gave in and she’s gonna go out with them. How can anyone say no to Liam when he looks like a cute big cuddly puppy? Louis himself would have surrendered to him in a second, even without the singing.

Zayn looks at Niall, a smirk on his face, and he starts to sing with Liam. Oh my God, this singing thing might be contagious.   
_“Yeah, we'll be doing what we do_  
 _Just pretending that we're cool and we know it too.”_  
“I’m not pretending, you moron! I’m the coolest guy around fyi!!” Niall protests.  
 _“Yeah, we'll keep doing what we do_  
 _Just pretending that we're cool, so tonight.”_  
“I told you I’m not pretendiiiiiiing … wooooooah!!!”   
Zayn starts to spin Niall around, laughing like he’s possessed and Louis feels Harry’s hold on him tightening, when, without any warning, the taller boy starts to spin him around too,.

 _“Let's go crazy, crazy, crazy 'til we see the sun.”_   
Harry’s voice reaches Louis’ ears and Louis knows he’s fucked already. He’s going to stay with them all night and who needs to sleep after all?  
 _“I know we only met but let's pretend it's love.”_  
 _Wait, what? Love? Has Harry actually said love?_  
 _“And never, never, never stop for anyone_  
 _Tonight let's get some and live while we're young.”_  
Some what? Oh my God is Harry talking about doing the dirt?   
_“Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh_  
 _Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh_  
 _Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh_  
 _Tonight let's get some_  
And live while we're young.”  
Yes he is, he totally is, Louis’ gonna die before dawn, he’s pretty sure about it.

Liam and Sophia are looking at each other like nothing else in the world matters when he starts to sing again.  
 _“Hey girl it's now or never, it's now or never_  
 _Don't overthink, just let it go.”_  
Are they taking a selfie now? Like this isn’t embarrassing enough, there’s no need of physical evidences.  
 _“And if we get together, yeah get together_  
 _Don't let the pictures leave your phone.”_  
What? No! Delete, delete!! No one has to see this. Never.

Niall reaches for Louis and takes him from Harry’s arms, grinning like the idiot he is and they fight for a sec before Zayn grabs his Irish boy, holding him from behind. That’s when Niall starts to sing.  
 _“Yeah, we'll be doing what we do_  
 _Just pretending that we're cool, so tonight.”_  
“Thought you weren’t pretending” Zayn laughs out loud, while all of them but Louis join Harry for the chorus once again.

_“Let's go crazy, crazy, crazy 'til we see the sun_   
_I know we only met but let's pretend it's love_   
_And never, never, never stop for anyone_   
_Tonight let's get some and live while we're young_   
_Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh_   
_Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh_   
_Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh_   
_Tonight let's get some_   
_And live while we're young.”_

Harry looks at Louis, his dimples showing, his grin so wide Louis thinks his gonna split in two.  
 _“And love, you and I_  
 _We're about to make some memories tonight.”_

Louis knows this is the end, so what the fuck, who cares, let’s join this craziness once for all.  
 _“I wanna live while we're young_  
 _We wanna live while we're young.”_

His friends look at him in happiness and that’s all he need to join the chorus himself, dancing in the middle of the empty Club like it’s the most normal thing in the world.  
 _“Let's go crazy, crazy, crazy 'til we see the sun_  
 _I know we only met but let's pretend it's love_  
 _And never, never, never stop for anyone_  
 _Tonight let's get some and live while we're young_  
 _Crazy, crazy, crazy 'til we see the sun_  
 _I know we only met but let's pretend it's love_  
 _And never, never, never stop for anyone_  
 _Tonight let's get some and live while we're young_  
 _Wanna live, wanna live, wanna live while we're young_  
 _wanna live, wanna live wanna live while we're young_  
 _Wanna live, wanna live, wanna live while we're young_  
 _Tonight let's get some_  
 _And live while we're young.”_

They’re all on the floor, panting and smiling.  
Louis is not sure where the music came from (Was it actual music? He’s not sure about it) and he can swear he saw back up dancers and lights glowing on them during the song, but all he can think right now is that they’re going to hit the city and have a lot of fun and he’s very happy about it.  
“So you changed your mind?” Harry asks hopefully.  
“Yes I did,” Louis replies, watching Sophiam kissing and Ziall cuddling “I can’t let you be the third… no wait… the fifth wheel, can I?”   
“No you can’t,” Harry smiles and his lips are finally on Louis’, kissing him slowly, like they have all the time in the world.


	2. Get close and drift apart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs for this chapters  
> One Thing, What Makes you beautiful, I wish  
> (One Thing is cut because I’m gonna do a reprise later, so I needed just a half of it here)  
> Please, for a full experience, sing along or listen to the actual song if you can.  
> Enjoy!!

“Who wants a dinosaur?”  
“Meeeeeeeeeee!!!”

Lottie, Fiz, Phoebe and Daisy’s hands rise up in the air at once, all excited and happy to have a proper breakfast this morning.  
Louis looks at them fondly, and then moves his eyes onto the boy who’s cooking in their kitchen, his mom’s pink apron wrapped around his muscular body.  
They spent the whole night together, wandering with their friends around in the streets, laughing like mad and… well… kissing. Harry kissed him all night long, having the lads shouting at them here and there “Can you just move, guys?” (This was Liam) or “Can you please stop exchanging DNA for 5 fucking minutes so we can finally arrive to Domino’s?” (and this, of course, was Niall). But the best one came from Zayn who literally separated them with his bare hands muttering “Gross” and “Fucking horny people” and “No respect for the elders” (which means nothing because it’s Louis the oldest one in their group).  
They reached Louis’ house while the sun was rising and found Johanna at the door, already late for her shift, tapping her foot on the threshold.

“Hello son”  
She didn’t sound very happy, but she was too much in a rush to ask many question and, as soon as Harry introduced himself and told her he was there to make pancakes for the kids, she thanked him a bit too profusely (Louis can make a proper breakfast. He can. Cereals are healthy, taste good and the risk to burn the kitchen to ashes while making them is very low) and took off to work.

So here they are, an hour later, making pancakes for some overexcited girls and looking fondly at each other like this is rehearsal for when they will be married in the future.  
Wait, what? Louis has really to stop his own brain because where did that thought come from? They’ve been together for what, 8 hours tops?  
He can’t be in love with Harry already… okay, he’s been infatuated for years, but that’s not the point. He doesn’t want to ruin everything because he feel the need to rush things to the highest level.  
But then Harry laughs and Louis feels the urge to find a ring and propose to him right there.  
Which NO.  
‘Louis William Tomlinson get your shit togheter. Now.’ he scolds himself, putting his hands on his face and shaking his head.

A strong arm comes around his waist, a soft voice whispering in his ear.  
“Are you tired babe?” Harry breathes on his neck, and Louis isn’t strong enough to resist him.  
He puts his own arms on Harry’s, letting the taller boy cuddle him properly.  
“Yeah a bit,” he replies, his eyes closed, his eyelashes casting light shadows on his cheekbones.

Harry kisses his neck, before asking the girls if they want to do a Disney Princess Marathon.  
“We’ll start with Frozen,” Harry explains to the girls who are looking at him so in awe Louis is almost jealous “and then we’ll go straight to Tangled and we’ll end with… your choice!!!”  
“Snowhite!”  
“Brave!”  
“Mulan!”  
“Alladin!”

Louis laughs loudly, good luck with that Harry. Louis himself has never been able to get his sisters' acts together when it comes to Disney Movies.  
But miracles happen, and all the kids agree immediately to watch the new Cinderella movie with the funny Fairy Godmother and the hot Prince from Game of Thrones (not that the girls watch the show, but Louis is shit at remembering names so he classifies actors according to which movie or show he has seen them in before so, yeah, the hot one from GOT and the crazy witch from Harry Potter, that’s all he can say about them).  
“Well girls, we’re going upstairs in my room to take a nap. You have had your breakfast, and you all have your juice to drink so… Lotts do you think you can manage them for a couple of hours? Please?”  
Lottie nods and smiles, sitting on the couch between Phoebe and Daisy, while Fiz decides upon lying on the floor in front of them, her head resting on the sofa cushions.  
Harry and Louis wave at them tiredly and, as soon as the Sami song starts, they reach Louis’ bedroom and close the door behind them.

Harry pins Louis to the door, pressing his lips to the shorter boy’s neck, tracing a wet line along his jaw, finally reaching his mouth, where he puts a light peck, looking at him hopefully.  
Louis' hands come up to cup his face, his mouth opened, their tongue already fighting inside their mouths.  
Harry is so overwhelmed, Louis' literally driving him crazy. He wants to devour him, to make him cry and to connect with him in a way he has never connect with anyone before  
He’s trying to play it cool, to pretend he’s not completely gone already, but he literally can’t.

Harry clearly remembers the first time he saw Louis, which was also the exact moment he realized he was attracted to boys as much as he was attracted to girls.  
Louis was on stage for their year 11 play. He was playing Peter Pan and he was literally the hottest thing Harry has ever seen in his whole life.  
He was wearing this green stockings with a very very short tunic and he looked so good Harry had had breathing issues until the end of the show every time Louis was on stage, so basically all the time, and it was so blatant that Niall asked him if he has ever had asthma.  
He’s wanted him for so long he still can’t believe he’s making out with him on his bed.  
“You drive me crazy, you know that? I wanted you for so long,” he says abruptly, his brain not really connected to his own mouth.  
“Yeah me too,” Louis answers, breathing on Harry’s collarbones.  
“You never said anything,” Harry complies. Louis’ older, he should’ve been the one to make the first move.  
“Thought you were straight,” Louis replies, leaving lovebites on Harry’s neck “And also you’ve never looked at me twice, how was I supposed to understand you liked me back?”  
“You weren’t looking at me either,” Harry retorts and Louis smiles wide.

 _  
“_ _I've tried playing it cool”,_  
Louis starts to sing and God, Harry is definitely gone.  
_“But when I'm looking at you_  
_I can't ever be brave.”_  
“You’re always brave babe”  
_"Cause you make my heart race.”_

  _“Shot me out of the sky.”_  
Louis laughs out loud, mr Curly is singing along with him.  
_“You're my kryptonite.”_  
Oh, a superman reference, Louis definitely falling deeper by the second.  
_“You keep making me weak_  
_Yeah, frozen and can't breathe.”_  
“Breath babe, I need you to be healthy.”

 _“Something's gotta give now_  
_'Cause I'm dying just to make you see.”_  
“What do you want me to see, Harry?”  
Is he talking about doing the dirt again?  
_“That I need you here with me now.”_  
“I’m right here love, not going anywhere.”  
_“'Cause you've got that one thing.”_

And finally their voices combined, like they’ve been created to sing together, the chorus coming by itself, while they dance around the room, not caring about being so tired they can literally sleep for two days straight, just enjoying their time together.

 _“So get out, get out, get out of my head_  
_And fall into my arms instead_  
_I don't, I don't, don't know what it is_  
_But I need that one thing_  
_And you've got that one thing_  
_So get out, get out, get out of my mind_  
_And come on, come into my life_  
_I don't, I don't, don't know what it is_  
_But I need that one thing_  
_And you've got that one thing.”_

They fall asleep like that, limbs tangled, faces smiling like it’s the most normal thing in the world.

 ***

Several day passed, and it’s time to go back to school.  
Louis and Harry have seen each other almost every day since Niall’s party and they connected in a way Louis has never thought he could. Harry is so touchy, he is always hugging, cuddling or kissing Louis and Louis plays with his curls and snuggles into him every time he can, feeling safe in Harry’s arms.  
It’s too much too soon. Louis is scared, mostly because his previous relationship ended because he was more involved than his partner. He basically scared the shit out of the other lad, talking about long term commitment after less than a month. He’s been seeing Harry for a week and he already wants to marry him. Too fast. Too fucking fast.

Louis doesn’t really want to go to school this morning, but he can’t skip the first day of course. Also Harry has just texted him he’ll be waiting for him beside his locker so they can properly snog before class.  
Properly snog. In the school hallways.   
Louis is not exactly against PDA, but he really doesn’t like too much attention on himself if he’s not on stage or acting like a dork on purpose. He doesn’t like the way he looks, especially his tummy, and his physical appearance in general doesn’t appeal his taste, not even a bit.  
Snogging Harry in front of everyone will bring stares and whispers and gossip and no. Louis doesn’t really want that.  
He is styling his hair in front of his bathroom mirror, when the loudest and scariest scream he has ever heard comes from Lottie and Fizzie’s room.  
He runs down the short hallway, telling his mom in the twins’ room he will take care of the problem in a minute and that they could go to school after that.

The scene inside the room is rather comic. Lottie and Fiz are on their beds jumping and screaming at once, pointing at the window in the furthest corner of the room.  
A little spider, roughly the size of his pinkie toe, is climbing the glass, indifferent to the screaming girls on the bed a few feet from it.  
“Is that tiny spider the problem girls?” he asked, but his sisters shake their head, still pointing at the window.  
“That’s the son,” Lottie says, her voice trembling in fear “the problem is the mother.”  
Louis looks again at the glass, his eyes reaching the corner of the ceiling, just above the window and then he sees it. A black, hairy, fat arachnid occupies the entire corner, hanging creepily from his web, goggling at them with his many horrible eyes.  
“What the fuck!” Louis screams, climbing on the bed beside his sisters. Okay, maybe he’s just a bit arachnophobic, but that thing is huge and all Louis wants is to call his mum to come to the rescue.  
  
“Mooooooom!” they shout altogether and Johanna enters the room immediately, looking at her children in disbelief.  
“What’s happening here?” she asks and they point at the spider with wide glossy eyes full of fear, but their mother doesn’t seem very impressed.  
“That’s the cause of all the screaming? Oh God, you are all little kids, I bet Phoebe and Daisy wouldn’t have been as scared as you are now.”  
Louis glares at her, why isn’t she saving them from the monster? Why is she taking it so easy?  
Louis, manly hidden behind a ten year old Fiz, watches as Johanna goes to the kitchen and comes back with a Tupperware, the one with the yellow cover Louis hates very much.  
Is she going to put that gigantic hairy thing inside a fucking Tupperware? With her hands?  
His mum is a hero.  
“Mum you’re my hero!” he says, once she has closed the jar and the monster is safely imprisoned.  
“I think she’s pregnant,” Johanna states with a smile, looking at the spider, and Louis thinks he’s going to throw up very soon.  
“Ewww baby monsters,” Lottie exclaims, clearly disgusted.  
“I’m going to free her in the park and then I’m gonna take you all to your first day of school. You’re all late, you know? It’s half past eight and none of you is ready.”  
Louis sighs and takes out his phone to text Harry he’s gonna be late and to not wait for him at the lockers.  
The day couldn’t have started worse than this.

 ***

Harry takes a look at his phone, an incoming WhatsApp notification enlightening his screen.  
Of course it’s Louis and of course he’s late again. The first day of school Harry has thought it was a coincidence, the spider story has been quite hilarious and he didn’t imagine back then that Louis was a messy weird and always late person. As strange as it might sounds, those flaws makes him even more interesting and unpredictable and Harry really likes this unexpected side of him.  
They’ve been dating for a whole month now and Harry is so into him, he doesn’t remember how was his life before Louis. Okay, they’re not really dating. They mostly hang out with the other lads or they have lunch together at school and they study together in the library after last period every Thursday, the only day they are both free from practice.  
  
After the first day of school, they found out they both want to attend Kings College next year, in London, and that none of them wants to keep on playing sport at an agonistic level. Both of them are interested in the Art and Humanities faculty, Harry in the Music degree and Louis in the Film one. They are also both very curious about the Queer@King’s program, an interdepartmental and interdisciplinary research group that teaches about gender and sexuality.  
They both agreed they should totally go to London together and search for an accommodation in the dorms, mostly because they are the only two moving to the capital. Niall and Zayn are both going to attend Law and Economics at Oxford, in order to inherit their fathers' firms, while Stan is going to stay in Manchester and study psychology and Liam is applying for the Fire Service College in Gloucestershire. Louis seems excited at the idea to move to London with Harry and Harry is already looking towards the end of school, he is so ready to pack all his stuff and go away from everything and start over. With Louis.  
  
Louis makes him feel like he’s made of jelly. His knees tremble, his heart beats too fast, his lips long for Louis’… and it’s too fast. A month it’s a very short time to say “I love you” but Harry swears he could have said it in the exact moment their lips touched for the first time.  
Louis arrives just while the bell is ringing. He walk into the class like he doesn’t even care he is late, even though Harry knows he does and very much at that. Most of the girls and even some guy look at him and Harry feels so lucky… he knows they are staring at Louis because he’s freaking hot. Not that Louis knows that much, he’s so oblivious to how people react when they see him doing something as simple as sitting at his desk in class.

Time seems to pass pretty fast this morning, and in a bit it’s already lunchtime.  
Louis and Harry walk through the cafeteria and Louis is looking at his feet, uncomfortable under the other students’ stares. Can’t they just look at Harry for once? Like, Harry is basically sex on legs, why waste their time on teeny tiny Louis when there is a Curly God to look at?  
Harry smiles at him, taking their trays with one hand and Louis’ hand with the other.  
“What’s wrong?” he asks with a big smile, trashing their leftovers in the garbage.  
“Nothing,” Louis mumbles, dragging his feet and looking at them, like they are the most interesting thing in the world.  
Harry puts his big hands on his shoulder and looks down at him, smiling wide.

  
_“You're insecure.”_  
“What? No I’m not!”  
_“Don't know what for.”_  
“Because I’m not!!!”  
_“You're turning heads when you walk through the door.”_  
“I don’t… they stare at me because I’m the loud one, that’s all...”  
_“Don't need make-up, to cover up.”_  
“Are you implying I have pimples? I don’t have a pimple, right?”  
_“Being the way that you are is enough.”_  
“Oh, so I don’t have any spots or else?”  
Harry laughs and kiss him right on the mouth, while people behind him start to trash their trays in a weird and almost choreographed way.

 _“Everyone else in the room can see it.”_  
“The pimple? Is it that big?”  
_“Everyone else but you.”_  
“Of course I can’t, it’s on my fucking face.”  
_“Baby you light up my world like nobody else”_  
“Oh good, it evolved from pimple to lightbulb...”  
_“The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed”_  
“Yeah? You think I’m sexy?”  
Louis brushes his fringe a couple of times, looking at Harry through his eyelashes and smirking like the teasing asshole he is.  
_“But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell.”_  
“Tell what?” Louis is confused.  
_“You don't know, Oh, oh, You don't know you're beautiful!”_  
“Oh my God” Louis feels his face on fire and his ability to speak seems completely gone.  
_“If only you saw what I can see You'd understand why I want you so desperately_  
_Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,_  
_You don't know Oh, oh, You don't know you're beautiful,_  
_Oh, oh, That's what makes you beautiful.”_  
“Harry I… I don’t… Maybe you need glasses? I’m many things but beautiful? Me? You’re wrong babe, very very wrong...”

 _“So c-come on.”_  
“Why are you stuttering now?”  
_“You got it wrong.”_  
“Be careful Styles, I might be many things but I’m never wrong.”  
_“To prove I'm right I put it in a song.”_  
“Oh, so that’s what this is all about? To see who’s right? You’re gonna lose mate.”  
_“I don't know why You're being shy.”_  
“I’ve never been shy all my life, do you even know me Harry?”  
_“And turn away when I look into your eye-eye-eyes.”_  
Louis can’t help but look away from the overwhelming green in Harry’s eyes.  
Maybe he’s right and he is shy when it comes to Harry.

“ _Everyone else in the room can see it, Everyone else but you.”_  
“We’re not talking about my pimples anymore, aren’t we?”  
And, finally, Louis let himself go. He takes Harry’s hand and they start to dance around, along with the other students.

 _“Baby you light up my world like nobody else_  
_The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,_  
_But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,_  
_You don't know,_  
_Oh oh, You don't know you're beautiful,_  
_If only you saw what I can see,_  
_You'll understand why I want you so desperately,_  
_Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,_  
_You don't know, Oh oh, You don't know you're beautiful,_  
_Oh oh, That's what makes you beautiful.”_

_Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na_

The backup dancers start a routine around them, jumping up and down the tables and singing their Na na na like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

_Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na_

And suddenly the music stops and Harry is so near, Louis can feel his breath on his own lips and he can’t look away from those big green sincere eyes, full of something Louis doesn’t know, or better he knows but he doesn’t want to name it, to say the word and jinx it.

 _“Baby you light up my world like nobody else,_  
_The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,_  
_But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,_  
_You don't know, Oh oh, You don't know you're beautiful.”_  
And then it’s gone, Harry goes back among the dancers line, like he belongs there, even though he can’t dance to save his own life.  
The routine starts back and that word is hidden again in Louis’ consciousness, waiting to come out again, hopefully at the right moment.

 _“Baby you light up my world like nobody else,_  
_The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,_  
_But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell,_  
_You don't know,_  
_Oh oh, You don't know you're beautiful,_  
_If only you saw what I can see,_  
_You'll understand why I want you so desperately_  
_Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,_  
_You don't know, Oh oh, You don't know you're beautiful,_  
_Oh oh, You don't know you're beautiful,_  
_Oh oh, That's what makes you beautiful.”_

Harry kisses him in the middle of the cafeteria and Louis has never felt happier in his whole life.

 ***

Harry and Louis are walking down the hallway of the second floor, near the library, and Louis is fucking annoyed because people keep whispering whenever they see them.  
Louis can perfectly understand the initial shock that has shaken the school after they started to hang out together, exchanging PDA here and there, but now it’s four fucking months, can they just move on? Or, who knows, focus on some other drama? Kendall and Cara can be a great topic to whisper about!! They are always making out and touching each other, more than Louis and Harry anyway.  
Cara and Kendall, or CaKe as the other students call them, are an absolute power couple, two hot girls with a sassy attitude. They can be often spotted while out on a date, whether in a fancy restaurant or the cinema.  
  
He and Harry went out on just one date on Halloween, and they went to Niall’s party dressed as Kurt and Blaine from Glee, both in their cheerleader outfit.  
Why Harry hasn’t asked him out after that, Louis has no idea at all. They spend a lot of time together, Harry is often at Louis’ place, he stayed several nights when Johanna was on her night shift, he cooked for him and his sisters, he played stupid games and he cuddled Louis to sleep several times. They spent Christmas (and Louis’ birthday) with the lads, and new Year’s Eve too. They kissed at midnight, but they didn’t go any further.  
The problem is that Louis’ so into Harry, he literally starts glowing when the younger boy is around, and he’s afraid Harry might have noticed and he’s backing off a bit. So Louis stays back as well and he really doesn’t know what to do, because he really wants to hold Harry’s hand right now, but he’s not sure he’s allowed to.  
  
“What are you going to study today?” Harry asks, stopping Louis’ sad train of thoughts.  
“Calculus,” Louis replies, smiling at his… his what? Friend? With Benefits? Do friends with benefits keep it just at kisses? Louis has to stop to think about this right now because he’s hurting himself, and he feels he and Harry are drifting apart a bit more every day.  
He doesn’t want to lose him, but what he’s supposed to do? Okay, Liam told him to talk openly to Harry about his feelings and his doubts, but Louis is scared. Like really really scared he can ruin things like he did in year 10 with Aiden. Before his crush on Harry was even a thing.  
He and Aiden dated for less than a month and Louis thought he was in love with him (he wasn’t) and so he told Aiden that much, but his boyfriend didn’t feel the same, so it was over even before it could properly start.  
He remembers that night last summer when he stole Harry’s phone and the boy’s said “We’re not even official yet”. He remembers he’s felt like his whole world was about to change, he felt strong because Harry made him strong. But now Louis feels weak. Weak and small and they’re still not talking about anything, is Harry okay with their situation? Are his feelings not strong enough? Why hasn’t he given Louis any signal that he wants more than just kissing and dry humping with their clothes on?  
Louis’ head starts to hurt a lot. He really doesn’t know what to do or how to keep these terrible thoughts from his head.

***

Harry’s freaking out. Louis is eating Nutella straight from the jar and he has his lips and chin smeared with the sweet cream and Harry is very near to losing it. He’s painfully hard in his pants and why is God so cruel to him? Louis is everything he’s ever dreamt of… it’s like God’s made Louis specifically to drive him crazy.  
First of all he is so tiny and cute, but he has this bossy sassy attitude and Harry has a very big sweet spot for both things. Second, he likes to manhandle Louis, carry him around, but he also likes when Louis tells him what to do, how to move around the house, how to spoon when they’re sleeping together. Louis always wants to be the big spoon and Harry loves to be the little spoon and it’s the first time he’s found someone that actually agrees to it.  
  
Harry’s last relationship didn't end in a very good way, they were always fighting, mostly because they didn’t agree upon anything. Also Harry thought she loved him, but she was just using him just for sex and to tell her friends she was banging a teenager. Harry thought that being with an older woman was sexy and hot and wow. Harry was 17 and she was 34, and at first he thought it was awesome. She was always insisting on going on dates every night, in expensive restaurants and private clubs, but every time they ended up in some hotel room to have sex and everything simply revolved around that. Harry didn’t like it, not even a bit. He likes to stay at home, have dinner together, hold hands while eating and finish the night on the couch cuddling and kissing.  
He wants to have sex with Louis of course, but he doesn’t want for it to be his priority. He likes their routine as it is, and also he doesn’t want to rush things, because Louis is the one, he’s pretty sure of that, and Harry is running for a happily ever after here.  
  
Harry looks at Louis and giggles. He really eats like a child, and it’s one of the hottest thing Harry has ever witnessed in his whole life. He picks a napkin from the table and neats Louis’ chin, giggling again.  
“What?” Louis asks, sticking his tongue out to clean his own lips. Harry leans on him and kisses his mouth, smiling softly, but Louis doesn’t kiss him back.  
“Is something wrong?” he asks, taken aback by the other boy’s reaction.  
Louis looks at him with his big blue eyes and Harry is pretty sure there’s something there, like a sad note he doesn’t really understand.  
But Louis shakes his head and smiles at him and Harry forgets everything because he is breathtaking and he can’t really resist him. He kiss him again and this time Louis kisses him back. Everything’s okay.

***

Nothing’s okay. It’s been five months since Niall’s party and Harry hasn’t asked him out yet, they’ve never talked about it and they’re still stuck at the same position they were in that damn club at the end of summer.  
“It’s your fault too, you know?” Liam says, while they’re going with Stan to football practice.  
“My fault? And how?” Louis can’t believe his own ears.  
“Oh, I’ll tell you how.” Stan exclaims, his tone firm and a bit… judging? This is weird, Stan is the less judging person in the whole universe.  
“Enlight me, please,” he replies sarcastically, looking at his own mates like he doesn’t know them anymore.  
“It’s your fault because you haven’t said anything to him. Like never. Why haven’t you asked him out instead of waiting for him? You’re making him do all the work and it’s really unfair.”  
  
Louis mumbles some excuses, even he doesn’t believe in them himself, and runs away from his friends, hiding in the bathrooms.  
He knows he’s doing a shitty job at being Harry’s boyfriend. They’ve kissed in front of other people who weren’t their closest friends just twice, and he didn’t hug him or hold his hand that much anymore.  
He’s pushing Harry away and he’s gonna totally lose him sooner or later.  
Maybe Harry can go back to Taylor, she’ll be pleased to have him back, even if she’s dating Calvin. Or he can find another guy, one who’s not a brat and who’s not scared to talk to him openly.  
Louis’ head starts to hurt a lot, maybe he should just skip practice and go home. He texts Liam to make up something for him with the coach and starts to walk home, trying to stop his stupid head from making up images of Harry having sex with Taylor and Calvin at once or, even worse, with a whole new person.  
  
He’s walking down the hallway when he sees them.  
Harry is leaning on the gym door, in his tennis outfit. He’s with Nadine, Taylor’s vice-captain. He has his hands on her waist whilst she has her arms around his neck, whispering something in his ear.  
Louis feels like life has been sucked out of him all at once.  
Why is Harry doing that to him? Why is Harry flirting with a girl he barely knows when he never flirts with Louis? Why why why… fat tears start to drop from Louis’ eyes as he runs away.  
He runs and runs until he reaches the bus stop in front of the school. Of course it starts raining in that exact moment, so he crashes in a corner of the projecting roof, back leaned on the school wall behind him, holding his knees tight to his chest, his head replaying the scene a thousand times in his head.

 _“She takes your hand_  
_I die a little_  
_I watch your eyes_  
_And I'm in riddles_  
_Why can't you look at me like that?”_  
Why Harry has to hold someone else? Did Louis screw it up so badly he already doesn’t want him anymore?

 _“When you walk by_  
_I try to say it_  
_But then I freeze_  
_And never do it_  
_My tongue gets tied_  
_The words get trapped_  
_I hear the beat of my heart getting louder_  
_Whenever I'm near you...”_  
Louis knows he’s in love with Harry, Louis wants to ask him to be his boyfriend, he wants to talk to him but he can’t, he really can’t… and it hurts so much he thinks he won’t survive to this pain. Maybe it should have been Nadine since the very beginning, Harry should have choose her that night, dance with her and kiss her instead of Louis so, maybe, now he wouldn’t feel like his heart is breaking inside his chest.

 _“But I see you with her_  
_Slow dancing_  
_Tearing me apart_  
_'Cause you don't see_  
_Whenever you kiss her_  
_I'm breaking,_  
_Oh how I wish that was me...”_  
Louis sees those images in his own head and he can’t handle the pain and the scars those thoughts are leaving on his heart.

 _“She looks at you_  
_The way that I would_  
_Does all the things,_  
_I know, that I could_  
_If only time could just turn back_  
_'Cause I got three little words_  
_That I've always been dying to tell you...”_  
He knows he’s overthinking, he’s making up too much from one single moment, but he can’t help it. He wants to be the one to hold Harry, to love Harry, but he doesn’t really know how to say it. It’s hard, it’s blocked down his own throat and all he can do is cry and sing and hope no one is going to see him like this.

 _“But I see you with her_  
_Slow dancing_  
_Tearing me apart_  
_'Cause you don't see_  
_Whenever you kiss her_  
_I'm breaking,_  
_Oh how I wish that was me_  
_With my hands on your waist_  
_While we dance in the moonlight_  
_I wish it was me that you’ll call later on_  
_'Cause you wanna say good night...”_  
He had everything and he ruined it. He had the most wonderful boy in the world and he lost him because he’s been too much of a coward to tell him how he really feels.

 _“'Cause I see you with her_  
_Slow dancing_  
_Tearing me apart_  
_'Cause you don't see_  
_But I see you with her_  
_Slow dancing_  
_Tearing me apart_  
_'Cause you don't see_  
_Whenever you kiss him_  
_I'm breaking,_  
_Oh how I wish_  
_Oh how I wish_  
_Oh how I wish that was me...”_

Two strong arms come around his shoulder and Louis looks up, Nick’s hands wiping his tears away.  
“C’mon, I’ll take you home,” he says and Louis wants to protest but he can’t do anything more than take his hand and follow him to his car.  
They drive away, Louis keeping his head down, not looking outside, completely missing Harry standing near the school gate, staring at them under the rain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my wonderful betas I love you all I'll be lost without you.  
> 


	3. Let's talk about things that matter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs for this chapters  
> One Thing, More Than This, Little Things  
> One Thing is cut because it’s a reprise from the previous chapter.  
> Please sing along or listen to the actual song for a full experience.  
> Enjoy ^_^

Harry is standing still beside the school gate, his eyes closed, his hands clenched into fists when, suddenly, the rain stops falling on his curls and eyelashes, a warm hand on his back, rubbing gently.  
“Is everything alright, mate?” Niall asks, his voice more like a whisper.  
Harry shakes his head and look at his friend, seeing Zayn there as well, holding Niall’s big rainbow umbrella over their heads, his eyes pointing where Nick’s car just disappeared around the corner.  
  
They take his arms, one each, and literally push him back inside the school, not leaving him the time to escape their grip. Not that he has the strength to do anything but cry right now. His chin is trembling so hard he has to keep it still with his own hand, fat tears already rolling down his cheeks.  
They reach the bathroom near the gym, where they find Stan and Liam waiting for them.  
Liam is over him in a sec, Nadine must have already spread the voice.  
  
“What did you do to him?” he accuses, grabbing his tennis t-shirt, anger visible in his eyes.  
“I…” Harry tries, but his voice is so broken he doesn’t think he can speak.  
“Hey, leave him alone for a sec, mate.” Zayn intervenes, gaining a killing glare from Liam.  
“Are you on his side now?” Liam shouts, while Zayn tries to free Harry from his grip. “Louis’ our friend, we are supposed to have his back no matter what, you traitor.”  
Stan sighs and stands up, moving between Harry and Liam, putting his hands on the second boy’s shoulders. “Yes, Louis’ our friend. This means we know how overdramatic he is. Let the lad explains himself. We can judge later, okay?”  
Liam nods and backs off a bit, without tearing his angry stare off Harry’s face.  
“C’mon man, what happened?” Niall offers and Harry sighs heavily, trying to normalize his breathing a bit.  
  
“I…” he starts again, but tears really don’t want to stop. He continues this time though, struggling to make his brain work long enough to form a coherent sentence.  
“I was playing with Nadine. She… she w-wanted to make Matt j-jealous… a-and I thought it would have been fun, you know? He… L-Louis wasn’t supposed to see that… he… he should have been at practice… but he s-saw and…”  
Harry burst out in tears again, incapable to block the pain in his chest and head.  
Stan puts a hand on Harry’s forearm, squeezing gently. “It’s okay pal. You did nothing wrong, it was innocent and Louis was already dealing with some bad thoughts on his own, he’ll come around very soon, I promise”  
“Which bad thoughts?” Harry asks and he sounds so genuinely worried that Liam finally relaxes, sitting on the floor, pleading for a cigarette.  
“I have a couple of joints,” Zayn mumbles and ten minutes later they’re locked in in the bathroom smoking on the floor and talking about Louis.  
  
“Just give him a couple of days,” Stan says “I’m sure he’ll come back to you very soon”.  
“If you say so,” Harry replies. He thinks he has to do something, he has already sent Louis like a hundred texts to explain what happened and apologizing, but he didn’t answer yet.  
“He’ll reply,” Niall comforts him, rubbing his hand again on Harry’s back which is soothing, really, but it also reminds him of how Louis used to do that to him and Harry doesn’t really know if he should tell his mate to stop or not. He’s so confused, mostly because Louis is with Nick now. What if he’ll take advantage of the situation to make a move on Louis? What if he succeeds?  
  
“He went away with fucking Nick Grimshaw,” Harry blurts out and Liam’s eyes visibly narrow at the name. If Liam doesn’t like the lad, Harry is definitely going to Louis’ home on the spot and break his big nose if he has to.  
He is going to stand up and do that much when Stan’s hand holds him back.  
“I told you to wait. You already texted him. Just wait, please.”  
Harry doesn’t know what to think. All he wants is to run to his boy and tell him everything he hasn’t told him in the past five months. Because if there’s anything he’s sure of in this mess is that he loves Louis and that he wants him back.

***

Louis’ laying on his bed, face down, cursing at himself for being a stubborn overdramatic idiot.  
Nick is playing FIFA, laughing by himself at his incredible lack of skill. He’s losing 31 to 0, Louis would have laughed at him too if he wasn’t so upset.  
It’s been three days since he saw Harry with Nadine and he hasn’t left his bedroom since then. He knows very well Harry hasn’t had any intercourse with the cheerleader, he’s just too ashamed of himself to show him his face. They texted a bit, Harry always asking him to meet him please, to let him explain but Louis avoided his pleadings every time, by changing the subject or, even worse, by not replying at all.  
Nick has been there with him all the time, telling Louis that it’s okay to be a Diva sometimes, that he can react as he wants to Harry’s stupid behavior. In the very first day he has been completely on Louis’ side, saying shitty thing about Harry, as any good friend would do when you’re mad to the guy you’re in love with, but now even Nick is just annoyed with Louis. Zayn, Stan, Niall, Liam and even Sophia texted him to tell him it was about time to get his shit together and go out of the house to meet Harry.  
Louis just doesn’t feel ready to face him, to see his beautiful curls and his green sparkling eyes and Oh God he has to do something before his own mind drives him even crazier than he already is.  
  
“I’m gonna text him,” Louis says to Nick, and the other boy sighs in relief.  
“It was about time,” he cheers, and goes to sit near Louis on the bed.  
Louis stares at the screen for a bit too long, but he can’t come up with anything smart to say. Like, Harry begged him for three days straight to meet him and Louis has never said a thing. And now he is the one asking for it and he’s scared Harry would give him the silence treatment, and Louis just wants to see him and hug him and tell him everything he hasn’t told him yet.  
Louis is walking on thin ice here, a wrong word and he can flush the toilet once and for all.  
So he sends the most innocent text he could came up with, a simple _“I’m ready to see you, If you still want to see me.”_  
And now he has just to wait for Harry’s reply.  
  
A whole hour passed and Harry hasn’t checked his WhatsApp yet. Why isn’t he checking his phone for God’s sake? The message has been delivered, but the fucking checks are not turning blue and Louis is going mad.  
“What are you doing now?” Nick half laughs at him, while Louis is upside down on his bed cursing at his phone.

 _“Now I'm climbing the walls.”_  
Louis looks at his phone like he can make Harry reply just with his mind power.  
_“But you don't notice at all.”_  
‘Cmon turn blue turn blue turn blue’ he thinks as hard as he can but the checks stay grey.  
_“That I'm going out of my mind_  
_All day and all night._ ”  
Nick turns his head to stare at him, an exasperated look on his face.  
“I am going out of my own mind if you don’t go talk to the lad like now.”

 _“Something's gotta give now_  
_'Cause I'm dying just to know your name”_  
“You know his name you moron!”  
“Bugger off Grimshaw, I’m singing!!!”

“ _And I need you here with me now_  
_'Cause you've got that one thing.”_  
“Which is his big dick” Nick singsongs.   
“Told you to shut the fuck up”

 _“So get out, get out, get out of my head_  
_And fall into my arms instead_  
_I don't, I don't, don't know what it is_  
_But I need that one thing_  
_So get out, get out, get out of my mind_  
_And come on, come into my life_  
_I don't, I don't, don't know what it is_  
_But I need that one thing_  
_And you've got that one thing.”_

Louis is dancing around the room, annoying Nick so much that he decides to go home and he’s about to leave the room when Louis take his hands and starts to dance with him out of the door.

 _Woah-oh-oh-oh_  
_Woah-oh-oh-oh_  
_Woah-oh-oh-oh_

 _“You've got that one thing”_  
“I’m so in love with him Nick.”  
“I know, now let me go it’s becoming embarrassing...”

 _“Get out, get out, get out of my head_  
_And fall into my arms instead.”_  
Louis and Nick go out the front door, still dancing and laughing and Louis is happy because he is about to go to Harry and tell him he wants him back and kiss him and date the shit out of him.

 _“So get out, get out, get out of my head_  
_And fall into my arms instead_  
_I don't, I don't, don't know what it is_  
_But I need that one thing_  
_So get out, get out, get out of my mind_  
_And come on, come into my life_  
_I don't, I don't, don't know what it is_  
_But I need that one thing_  
_Yeah, you've got that one thing.”_  
Nick and Louis are panting in the middle of the garden and Louis’ smile is growing bigger and bigger and he’s about to hug Nick and thank him for all his help, when a shadow appears out of nowhere between them, yelling at Nick at the top of its lungs.

***

Harry is hiding behind Louis’ neighbor’s tall hedge. He ran there instead of going to practice because he really needed to see Louis and maybe talk to him, but now he is stuck behind the bushes scared to go knocking at Louis’ door.  
  
The last three days have been so painful for Harry, he doesn’t even know how he has been able to resist until now. Louis hasn’t been at school since the day he went away with Nick, and Grimshaw himself was nowhere to be found and it drives Harry crazy because fuck you very much, why was the fucking Dj allowed to see Louis while Harry was not?  
Stan told him multiple times to stay calm, to not rush things and, since he is the person who knows Louis better than anyone, Harry has followed his advices by heart and kept the pleading at a minimum, secretly praying for a positive outcome, but every time he tried to go a bit further and asked Louis to meet him, Louis has never answered once.  
  
Three days have passed and Louis was still avoiding his questions, so Harry decided to take matters in his hands and talk to him in person.  
He felt so brave before, in the locker room, when he made the decision to go to Louis’. Now he’s feeling a little less brave and a lot more afraid and that’s why he’s hiding behind the hedges, trembling like a falling leaf, strongly hoping no one will notice him.  
  
“Whatcha doin’ mate?” a voice startles him, leaving him breathless for a moment.  
“What the fuck Niall,” Harry hisses at him, slapping his head.  
“Ouch,” Niall complains “I was just checking on you, you looked so weird earlier. Also you left your phone in the locker room. See what you could gain trying to help a friend.”  
Niall massages his head, pouting at the other boy.  
“I’m sorry,” Harry whispers “but you scared the shit out of me. Thank you for bringing my phone!! Where is it?”  
“In Zayn’s front pocket,” Niall replies “He dropped me here and went further on the street to find a parking spot where Louis won’t see the car.”  
Harry nods and curses at himself because he’s not only a coward, he’s also left behind his only way to communicate with Louis… he’s an asshole.  
“So, why are you still here?” Niall inquires, scowling at him.  
“I… uhm… I don’t… you know… I’m scared… what if he sends me away?”  
  
“He won’t,” Zayn states, arriving from the other side of the street. He looks concerned and he’s frowning like mad, but he doesn’t seem angry at Harry, which is a very good thing.  
“Here’s your phone. Battery died a while ago.”  
Harry curses under his breath, slipping his phone in his back pocket. No phone means he has to find the courage to go and talk to him in person. He can do that. He can. Of course he can. Now he is gonna move, it’s just a step, he can totally do that. Okay, he can’t. His legs don’t agree with his plan and don’t seem to want to move very soon.  
“Harry, do I have to take you there myself? Just go!!!” Niall urges him, pushing him a little, but Harry’s feet are glued to the ground, incapable to take a step.  
Then a song reaches his ears and he knows it, he sang it before. With Louis. And Mr. Tomlinson himself is singing it, to none other than Nick Grimshaw, in the middle of the garden.  
Harry’s world turns red. He moves faster than The Flash, reaching Louis and Nick in less than a second, putting himself between his boy and the asshole, yelling at him at the top of his lungs.

***

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”  
Harry is shouting so out loud, holding Nick by his collar, and Louis’ half scared and half turned on because Harry is so hot and he’s yelling at Nick because he’s probably jealous and wow.  
Louis moves to look at Harry’s face. His curls are a mess, his cheeks are flushed and the green in his eyes is several tones darker than usual. He’s one of the hottest things in the world and Louis is so in love he doesn’t even listen to Harry’s accusations, lost in his bubble of nice feelings.  
Harry is holding Nick shoulders and he keeps shaking him, blabbering what to Louis seems a lot of nonsense, while the other boy tries unsuccessfully to get rid of him.  
“We just went on one date, stop it now,” Nick complains and Louis blushes because why is he talking about that now? It happened on the very night of the _“Nadine incident”_ and it was a shitty date, mostly because Louis has talked about Harry the whole time, boring Nick to death.  
  
Harry turns around to face Louis, his eyes full of thoughts and images and Louis knows very well what’s happening. Harry’s mind is making up bad things and Louis knows that because that’s exactly how his own mind works too.  
“You went on a date. With him.” It’s more a statement than a question and Louis doesn’t want to lie to Harry, so he nods slightly.  
Nick takes advantage of his rediscovered freedom and walks away, leaving them with a “See you tonight Tomlinson, right?” which, okay, he could have saved himself the trouble to say the most inappropriate thing of all times, but he’s Nick right? He always has  
to be the most annoying he can.  
“Louis…” Harry looks so devastated.  
“Harry… you never asked me on a date. He did and I was mad at you and… “  
“Shut up.”  
“Excuse me?”  
“I told you to shut up Louis. Stop talking.”  
Louis is so angry now. How he very dare!!!!  
“What the hell is wrong with you? You came here uninvited, you shouted to my friend, you told me to shut up, I won’t shut up, I’ll talk as much as I…”

 _“I'm broken, do you hear me?”_  
Louis’ shocked. He didn’t see this coming.  
_“I'm blinded, 'cause you are everything I see.”_  
Louis’ anger fades away, Harry looks so hurt, it’s almost painful to look at him.  
_“I'm dancin' alone, I'm praying,_  
_That your heart will just turn around.”_  
It never went away, Harry has to know that.  
_“And as I walk up to your door,_  
_My head turns to face the floor,_  
_'Cause I can't look you in the eyes and say...”_  
Louis’ heart is beating too fast, he’s afraid, he’s scared, what if Harry has decided to leave him for good?

 _“When he opens his arms and holds you close tonight.”_  
Who? Grimshaw? Oh my God Harry’s mind has really made up a lot of things  
_“It just won't feel right”_  
Louis’ a bit disgusted, but this is not the right time to show it.  
_“'Cause I can love you more than this, yeah.”_  
Wait, what? Did Harry just said he loves Louis?  
_“When he lays you down, I might just die inside.”_  
Louis knows exactly how Harry’s feeling.  
_“It just don't feel right.”_  
And yeah, it doesn’t feel right, not even a bit.  
_“'Cause I can love you more than this_  
_Can love you more than this...”_  
“I can love you too” he says and decides to sing it too, just in case it wasn’t clear enough.

  
_“If I'm louder, would you see me?”_  
“I can always see you Louis”  
_“Would you lay down_  
_In my arms and rescue me?”_  
Harry nods, and take a step closer to Louis, feeling a new sentiment growing inside his heart.  
_“'Cause we are the same you save me, when_ _you leave it's gone again...”_  
“I’ll never leave, I promise”

 _“And then I see you on the street,_  
_In her arms, I get weak,_  
_My body fails, I'm on my knees_  
_Prayin'.”_  
“I’m so sorry you had to witness that, it was a joke I promise”

 _“When she opens her arms and holds you close tonight,_  
_It just won't feel right,_  
_'Cause I can love you more than this, yeah,_  
_When she lays you down,_  
_I might just die inside,_  
_It just don't feel right,_  
_'Cause I can love you more than this...”_  
Harry engulfs Louis in his arms. He understands now, Louis’ mind runs as fast as Harry’s does, they make up things and see stuff where there’s nothing to see. But now Harry knows the truth and all he wants to do is tell Louis everything and he feels very brave when he starts to sing again.

 _“Yeah, I've never had the words to say,_  
_But now I'm askin' you to stay_  
_For a little while inside my arms.”_  
“Your arms are my favorite place in the world,” Louis smiles in Harry’s neck, breathing slowly.  
_“And as you close your eyes tonight,_  
_I pray that you will see the light,_  
_That's shining from the stars above.”_  
“You are my light, I don’t need stars when I have you.”

 _“When he opens his arms and holds you close tonight.”_  
“Are you still thinking about Grimshaw? Eww Harry, it’s disgusting.”  
_“It just won't feel right.”_  
“No it won’t, it sucks.”  
_“'Cause I can love you more than this.”_  
“Awww I love you too.”

 _“'Cause I can love you more than this, yeah_  
_When he lays you down,_  
_I might just die inside”_  
“Don’t die love please, we’ve just got back together!!”  
_“It just don't feel right,_  
_'Cause I can love you more than this, yeah_  
_When he opens his arms and holds you close tonight,_  
_It just won't feel right,_  
_'Cause I can love you more than this, yeah_  
_When he lays you down,_  
_I might just die inside,_  
_It just don't feel right,_  
_'Cause I can love you more than this,_  
_Can love you more than this.”_  
They finish the song together, half laughing really, because Louis makes disgusted noises every time Nick comes up in the song and Harry can’t help but snort every single time.  
They hold onto each other so tight, like the are too afraid to let go, like they are still scared this is not going to last a minute longer.  
From behind the hedges Zayn and Niall are smiling wide. Their friends are gonna fix it in the end. It’s time for them to go back home and, maybe, fix some of their shit too.

“So you got my text and you run here like mad,” Louis says, Harry’s arms still around him, holding tight.  
Harry looks at him with a weird look, what is his boy talking about?  
“No, Louis. I’ve been hiding behind the hedges for more than two hours and my phone died a long ago… you texted me?”  
“Yes!!! I asked you if we could meet somewhere… It seems we’ve thought the same thing at the same time…”  
Louis looks so vulnerable and happy and Harry really wants to kiss him so badly. But first he has to apologize properly.  
“I’m sorry for what happened the other day. It’s not going to happen again, I promise!”  
“I believe you,” Louis replies, smiling slightly “And nothing happened with Grimshaw… I was too focused on you, I talked about your curls for a good couple of hours, you should have seen Nick’s face, he was on the verge of suicide”  
They laugh together and it feels so good, so right, but they still have to talk, because they haven’t for five months, it’s time to clear up things a bit.  
“I don’t even know why you like me so much,” Harry breathes on Louis’ forehead, sending shivers down the smaller boy’s spine.  
Louis looks at him through his eyelashes and then takes his hand, intertwining their fingers and smiling as he starts to sing. Again.

 _“Your hand fits in mine like it's made just for me.”_  
“Just because your hands are so tiny!!!”  
_“But bear this in mind, it was meant to be.”_  
Oh, is Louis implying they’re soul mates?  
_“And I'm joining up the dots with the freckles on your cheeks.”_  
“I don’t have freckles, do I?”  
_“And it all makes sense to me...”_  
Harry kisses Louis’ nose and then It's his turn to put into words what's inside his heart

 _“I know you've never loved the crinkles by your eyes when you smile.”_  
“Because they make me look older!!!”  
_“You've never loved your stomach or your thighs.”_  
Louis doesn’t like himself that much… and Harry knows, Harry noticed.  
_“The dimples in your back at the bottom of your spine_  
_But I'll love them endlessly.”_  
Harry noticed and he likes him anyway. This is enough to join him for the chorus, while, holding hands, they go back into the house, never tearing their eyes away from one another.

 _“I won't let these little things_  
_Slip out of my mouth_  
_But if I do_  
_It's you_  
_Oh it's you_  
_They add up to_  
_I'm in love with you_  
_And all these little things.”_  
Saying “I’m in love with you” has never been so easy as it is for them in this moment. Harry sits on Louis’ bed and Louis climbs in his lap, looking at him fondly and singing for him.

 _“You can't go to bed without a cup of tea.”_  
“That’s very true!”  
_“And maybe that's the reason that you talk in your sleep.”_  
“You told me you’ve never heard me!! Liar!!”  
_“And all those conversations are the secrets that I keep_  
_Though it makes no sense to me.”_  
“You have to tell me sooner or later” Harry laughs, before singing his own verse. 

 _“I know you've never loved the sound of your voice on tape.”_  
“My recorded voice is so high and sounds so awful and eww”  
_“You never want to know how much you weigh, you still have to squeeze into your jeans.”_  
“I’m a bit fat, I know that”  
_“But you're perfect to me.”_  
Louis doesn’t know what to say because wow, Harry’s so breathtaking and Louis is so overwhelmed and they are going to sing at once again.

 _“I won't let these little things_  
_Slip out of my mouth_  
_But if it's true_  
_It's you_  
_It's you_  
_They add up to_  
_I'm in love with you_  
_And all these little things.”_  
But Harry seems to still have something to say, something that’s still caught inside his throat, a thought which has waited enough to obtain its own voice.

 _“You'll never love yourself half as much as I love you_  
_And you'll never treat yourself right darlin' but I want you to_  
_If I let you know I'm here for you_  
_Maybe you'll love yourself like I love you, oh...”_  
Louis’ still speechless and so so happy and what did he do to deserve a love like this? A love that one doesn’t think he can find in real life. But they’re singing instead of talking and maybe he’s really stuck inside some weird fictional world but, as long as he has Harry, it doesn’t really matter to him.

 _“I've just let these little things_  
_Slip out of my mouth_  
_'Cause it's you_  
_Oh it's you_  
_It's you they add up to_  
_And I'm in love with you_  
_And all these little things_  
_I won't let these little things_  
_Slip out of my mouth_  
_But if it's true_  
_It's you_  
_It's you_  
_They add up to_  
_I'm in love with you_  
_And all your little things.”_

“I love you Lou”  
“I love you too Haz”  
And when they kiss the universe starts to revolve around them, you can see the birds, in the sky, singing their joy, you can hear the fish, in the sea, screaming in happiness, you can feel the Earth stopping her path around the Sun, just to have the time to stare at true love for a while.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for my great friend Bianka who's going through a very rough time. I love you so much babe, hold on tight.


	4. Moving forward

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs for this chapter  
> Truly Madly Deeply, Change My Mind, Kiss You  
> I cut Kiss You last refrain because… you’ll see that. Louis’ can’t really sing in that moment, believe me.  
> Happy Birthday Stephanie!!!!!
> 
> P.S.  
> I know I told no smut scene in act 1, but It's not my fault, i had planned an entirely different thing, i promise, it's Harry and Louis' fault u.u.  
> So, there will be a blowjob, not very well written must say.... I'm the kind of person who loves reading smut but I blush like mad when I have to write one. Sorry i'm weird.  
> Please enjoy!!!

Louis opens his eyes and glances to the digital clock on his bedside table, his brain still half sleeping.  
The neon red digits tell him it’s 5.35 A.M. so he still has a good hour of sleep before he has to get up, dress himself and go to wake up his sisters and prepare them for school.  
It’s a lot to do for him alone, make breakfast and dress them decently (which means no pajamas for the twins, no freaking old holey band t-shirt for Fiz and age appropriate make up for Lottie), pack their lunch boxes and drive them to school in time. That’s one of the reasons he’s often late at school, but the teachers know his family situation and they turn a blind eye for him more often than they should.  
A warm arm and a strong body wrap around him from behind and suddenly the events from the night before down on him, making him blush like mad.  
He is in bed with Harry Styles, his BOYFRIEND Harry Styles and they are half naked because, after five months of struggling, they finally reached third base and he had Harry’s mouth on his cock and Harry’s cock in his mouth and it had been so glorious Louis can’t really wait to do it again.  
After they talked and sang sappy songs to each other and kissed until their lips were red and swollen, Louis’ mother was called in for an extra night shift so, he and Harry (okay, mostly Harry) made a quick dinner for everyone and put the girls in bed before saying goodbye to Johanna and go back to Louis’ room.  
Harry has kissed him like he was his oxygen, like there was nothing else in the world and Louis kissed him back with the same urgency.  
He still can’t believe how lucky he is and he still has the feeling that it can finish as fast as it started.  
He turns in Harry’s embrace just to look at his sleepy peaceful face, moving one of his wild curls from his forehead, fingers lingering in a gentle caress.  
Louis looks at Harry fondly, inhaling quietly, and he’s still not sure this is not a dream and he feels a bit insecure, so maybe that’s the reason he suddenly starts to sing.

 _“Am I asleep, am I awake, or somewhere in between?_  
_I can't believe that you are here and lying next to me_  
_Or did I dream that we were perfectly entwined?_  
_Like branches on a tree, or twigs caught on a vine?”_  
Harry is warm and very real. Their limbs are tangled, their lips just an inch apart, and Louis thinks that he could really picture himself doing this for the rest of their lives.

 _“Like all those days and weeks and months I tried to steal a kiss_  
_And all those sleepless nights and daydreams where I pictured this,_  
_I'm just the underdog who finally got the girl_  
_And I am not ashamed to tell it to the world.”_  
Louis wants to shout it from the rooftops, wants to tell to everyone in the world that him, Louis Tomlinson, among all the people on the planet, has caught the hottest and most desired guy on Earth and that he is the luckiest man alive. And if someone says this is too much of an hyperbole, they can go fuck themselves, thank you very much.  
  
_“Truly, madly, deeply, I am_  
_Foolishly, completely falling_  
_And somehow you kicked all my walls in_  
_So baby, say you'll always keep me_  
_Truly, madly, crazy, deeply in love with you_  
_In love with you.”_  
Louis thinks of all the times he thought he was in love, with Aiden and others guys he fancied before Harry walked into his life, and he realizes how wrong he was. He’s never been in love before because love makes you feel invincible and vulnerable at the same time, makes you feel like everything is both in the right and wrong place… it makes you feel like all you need is that one person, the one that makes you feel perfect just when you are together, like they’re everything, like they’re a safe place, like they’re home.  
He holds onto Harry a little bit tighter and dozes off, cuddled by the light snoring of the man he loves.

***

The clock says 6.22 when Harry wakes up. He has to take a wee as soon as he can so he carefully moves a deep sleeping Louis from his arms and sneaks out of the bed, promptly entering the bathroom.  
It’s been an amazing night and Harry feels very happy and satisfied, his morning wood not as painful as it had been in the past few months. He takes a quick shower and dresses very fast, so he can go downstairs to make breakfast and let Louis sleep a little bit more. He’s always so tired, taking care of his sister by himself is a hard work for someone as young as he is and Harry is so so proud of him. They talked a lot about their feelings, but there are so many things he still has to tell Louis, how proud he is of him, how much his eyes drive him crazy, how much he loves his flaws and his qualities and that he wants to be with Louis for the rest of his life, no matter what.  
He opens a cabinet, thinking about what he can do for Louis, when a good idea pops in his mind, making him smile wide.

 _“Should I put coffee and granola on a tray in bed_  
_And wake you up with all the words that I still haven't said?_  
_And tender touches, just to show you how I feel_  
_Or should I act so cool like it was no big deal?”_  
Harry takes the tray upstairs, trying not to spill everything, because on the field he is very good but he is so clumsy sometimes, he can literally trip over his own feet.  
He enters the room and Louis is still sleeping, his fringe covering his eyes, his long eyelashes crowing his close eyelids and Harry literally stops breathing at the sight.

 _“Wish I could freeze this moment in a frame and stay like this_  
_I'll put this day back on replay and keep reliving it_  
_'Cause here's the tragic truth if you don't feel the same_  
_My heart would fall apart if someone said your name.”_  
He really doesn’t know what would happen to him if Louis decides he doesn’t want him anymore. If this is already destined to finish. Harry he’s pretty sure he would die from heartbreak, because he is so in love, so so in love, everything else doesn’t count anymore.

 _“And truly, madly, deeply, I am_  
_Foolishly, completely falling_  
_And somehow you kicked all my walls in_  
_So baby, say you'll always keep me_  
_Truly, madly, crazy, deeply in love with you.”_  
Louis wakes up and looks at him, a plead in his eyes and Harry knows he has the same fears, that he is as much afraid to lose Harry as Harry is to lose him.  
They sang a lot together lately, but it never felt so urgent as it is now, to say it out loud, to declare “I’m scared this is not going to last,” and “the only thing I want is you.”

 _“I hope I'm not a casualty,_  
_Hope you won't get up and leave_  
_Might not mean that much to you_  
_But to me it's everything, everything_  
_Truly, madly, deeply, I am_  
_Foolishly, completely falling_  
_And somehow you kicked all my walls in_  
_So baby, say you'll always keep me_  
_Truly, madly, crazy deeply in love (in love) with you (with you),_  
_In love (in love) with you (with you)_  
_In love (in love) with you (with you)_  
_With you, oh!”_

Kissing after every song has somehow become an habit for them and so they kiss, letting the words sink into their skin, finally sure that they are on the same page, that they feel the same and that they could be enough for each other for the rest of their lives.

***

Another month passed and Louis and Harry are out and proud, the entire school loves them and apparently people even gave them a ship name so, soon enough, Larry Stylinson was as famous as CaKe among the students.  
Harry is currently waiting for Louis outside the Drama Club, listening through the door to the vocal exercises the students are performing inside the classroom.  
_“FA LA LA LA – FA LA LA LO_  
_FA LA LA LA – FA LA LA LI_  
_FA LA LA LA – FA LA LA LA_  
_FA LA LA LA – FA LA LA LU_  
_FA LA LA LA – FA LA LA LE.”_  
Harry thinks that it’s weird and it sounds too much like Christmas to him, but Louis always says they are essential to improve his vocal abilities, so Harry is more than happy to wait for him to finish with them.  
They both have a free period after lunch, so they planned to have some sort of picnic beside the tennis fields. March seems a lot warmer than usual and they decided it would have been cool doing something different for once.  
Of course the weather is not on their same page and, as soon as Louis exits the Club, it start raining like mad.  
“Fucking hell,” Louis curses under his breath, watching the huge raindrops hit the hallway windows, his fingers pressed on the glass, his breath steaming it up.  
Harry mists the glass too, and then writes H + L on the window, surrounded by a big heart, in an obvious impression of Lavanda Brown in the Halfblood Prince movie, making Louis laugh like mad for a good minute and improving his mood.  
“We can have our lunch in the theatre, right on stage!!” Louis suggests and Harry smiles at him, nodding in approval, as he takes his hand, leading them to the auditorium on the other side of the school, hoping to find it empty for once.

They are laying on the stage, some pillows and a blanket they stole from the props storage spread around them, feeding each other the fruit salad Harry’s made that very morning at Louis’ place, peacefully enjoying their time together.  
Louis is so happy and feels so complete and calm that, when the backstage door slams loudly and Liam storms on the scene in the worst mood he has seen him in in ages, he thought he should have seen that coming.  
Drama free life? Is that even a thing? Shame on Louis for thinking something like that was even possible.  
  
“Babe!!” Sophia was running after him, calling him repeatedly, but Liam wasn’t listening.  
He sits heavily right between Harry and Louis, his head resting immediately on the older boy’s shoulder.  
“Cuddle me,” he says in this weird tone, half angry, half frustrating and half something else Louis doesn’t really catch.  
“You have your own girlfriend, Payne,” Harry protests, but Sophia shakes her head, looking at them with such a plead in the eyes, Louis can’t really say no anymore.  
He puts his arms around the goalkeeper, rubbing his back gently, trying to calm him down.  
“What’s going on?” Harry asks Sophia, staring at her in confusion.  
“It’s Niall and Zayn,” Sophia starts, but Liam holds a hand in front of her hissing “Don’t even name them to me please Soph, I really want to kill them right now.”  
Sophia sighs heavily, and sits beside her boyfriend, replacing Louis’ hand on his back.  
Louis moves between Harry’s opened legs, snuggling into him, enjoying his amazing smell and the warmth of his chest.  
Harry hugs him absentmindedly, still looking at Liam, trying to figure out what happened.  
  
“Liam, please, explain,” Louis pleads and the other boy grunts something to Sophia, who finally starts talking.  
“Liam and Niall were talking about the next party, how it would be cool being all dressed up in a costume or something and Niall was nodding happily, when Liam said the theme could be Famous Fictional Couples…”  
“And I meant pairs, PAIRS!!!!!” Liam intervenes “not people in love, just people matching in the fiction!! Like Mickey and Goofy for God’s sake, no one ships Mickey and Goofy!!” he blurts out in frustration.  
“I don’t even know why I said couples, maybe because our group is basically made of four cute couples, you know, and, when I explained that much to Niall, he yelled at me I have to stop to assume other people relationships, he told me to fuck off and went away muttering something about stupid people and confused sexualities.”  
“At that point,” Sophia steps in, since Liam seems too mad to continue “I asked Zayn what the hell was Niall talking about and he said they’re not together…”  
“WHAT!” both Louis and Harry shout in disbelief at Sophia’s words.  
“What does it mean they’re not together?” Harry asks, absolutely shocked about the news “Like… they’re always cuddling and kissing on the cheeks and they go home together every single day!”  
  
Louis’ speechless. And he’s also feeling guilty because he’s having this massively romantic love story with Harry and he didn’t even realize one of his best friends was having a very hard time.  
Zayn had had a crush on Niall almost as long as Louis has had his own on Harry and it seems impossible they aren’t together yet.  
“Niall is a bit oblivious when it comes to feelings, you know,” Harry discloses “He’s not very good at understanding them, he never had a boyfriend or girlfriend, not even a light crush on someone until Zayn… Like, it’s so obvious they like each other!!!!”  
Liam, Louis and Sophia nodded in agreement.  
  
“Why are you mad at Zayn anyway?” Louis asks Liam, who starts grumbling heavily and Louis is on the verge of laughing because he looks like an overgrown puppy, all big eyes and heavy puffing breaths.  
“Because,” he fumes “when I asked him why he didn’t make a move on Niall yet, he answered me that me being happy and in love is not a valid reason to stick my large nose in other people’s business.”  
“Rude!” Louis exclaims “That’s not Zayn’s regular behavior. Also you have a cute nose Liam.”  
“Thank you,” Liam pouts, touching his nose, looking even more like the giant puppy he is.  
They stay silent for a few minutes, brains working fast, thinking about what they can do to help their friends understand they have feelings for each other and get things moving in the right direction.  
“We should talk to them separately,” Louis suggests “so we can understand how their dynamics work, because as far as I know they spend a lot of their time together...”  
“Yes they do,” Liam confirms “and if they’re not in the same place they keep texting and sending selfies to each other, they are so cheesy sometimes…”  
“Let’s do it then,” Harry says, getting up from the floor and helping Louis doing the same. “I think it’s up to us now” he explains to Liam, pointing at Louis and himself “since you already had an argument with them on this very topic, I think it’s better if you stay out of it for now”  
Liam nods and Louis sighs, taking out his phone.  
_‘Need to talk to you.’_ he texts Zayn, before exiting the auditorium, holding his boyfriend’s hand and hoping everything’s gonna be alright for all of them.

***

It’s the night of Niall’s party and Louis is freaking late. It took him almost two hours to style his hair properly, even with his sisters’ help. He was supposed to be at the party like an hour ago, Harry already texted him a hundred time, all worried and caring and Louis loves him very much. He looks at himself in Niall’s windows before entering the house. He’s dressed in a blue hoodie sprayed with fake snow, brown trousers that reach just above his ankles and he’s carrying a big curve stick, which vaguely resembles the one Jack Frost uses in The Rise of the Guardian. His hair is painted silver white and they’re shining like diamonds under the moonlight.  
The door is open and, as soon as he gets in, he sees Niall, dressed as Prince Charming from Once Upon A Time, looking at him like he is an alien, just before bursting out laughing.  
“What’s so hilarious?” he snaps, a bit offended by the other lad’s reaction.  
“Nothing,” Niall chokes “It’s that Harry’s costume makes sense now that I see you.”  
“Oh! I haven’t seen him yet, he told me he wanted to surprise me.”  
“It’s gonna be a hell of a surprise then.”  
  
Louis marches inside the house, looking at people and spotting some of his favorite fictional pairs here and there.  
Stan and Laura, perfectly portraying a very redhead Ron Weasley and a beautiful Hermione Granger, cheer at him, giggling a little. They probably figured out Harry’s outfit too. Many other people look at him, nodding in acknowledgment and Louis’ becoming more curious by the second.He follows Niall to the sofas in the furthest corner of the reception room. At first he spotted Liam and Sophia, amazing in their costumes from Frozen. Sophia is a very pretty Princess Anna and Liam is obviously Kristoff, with the funny hat and a cute plush reindeer hanging from his belt.  
Next to them there’s Zayn who looks absolutely stunning. He matches Niall’s outfit, of course, a long leather jacket covering his lean body, eyes marked with the black eyeliner just one Killian “Hook” Jones can wear proudly.  
He searches for Harry, but he’s not in sight.  
  
“Harry just went to the bathroom, he’ll be back very soon,” Zayn inform them and Louis looks at him with a little smile.  
They’ve talked a lot in the past week, since the first text Louis has sent him from the auditorium.  
Zayn is deeply in love with the Irish tennis players, but it’s just that Niall doesn’t seem to feel the same. Harry has tried to talk to the blonde guy all week long, but he didn’t come up with nothing. Harry said Niall is really confused and obviously attracted to Zayn, but he doesn’t want to take a further step. Maybe he’s scared of how his family might react, or he’s still not sure he’s not entirely straight.  
They usually hang out at Niall’s place, because at Zayn’s there are his sisters and mother and they don’t really have any concept of boundaries. Or privacy. So Niall’s house has always seemed the better option. They spent a lot of time together, Zayn stayed often until late, but Niall never asked him to spend the night or offered him a couch to crash on. They only times Zayn slept over, were those on their regular lads night, which means the 6 of them, packed in Niall’s room, smoking weed and telling horror stories. Not the most romantic scenario to make a move on your crush.  
  
Louis’ so focused on Ziall’s issues that he doesn’t see Harry approaching him from his left side, until a pair of strong arms, with leather orange armbands on, surround his tiny frame, engulfing him in a tight embrace.  
“Hello Jack,” he says in his best fake Australian accent.  
“Hello Bunnymund,” Louis replies turning around to face him.  
Louis’ jaw reaches the floor and he’s positively drooling because, fucking hell, Harry is a vision. A very dirty and arousing vision, to be more precise.  
He is wearing very tight blue shorts, the leather armbands and a holster to hold Bunnymund’s iconic boomerangs. The rest of him is colored in blue and white bodypaint, in order to imitate the rabbit’s fur.  
“Holy shit babe, you look so hot” Louis grins, latching his hands on Harry’s neck and kissing him deeply, tongues dancing and crotches colliding and maybe it’s better they go straight home right now.

“Are you leaving already?”  
Niall’s not happy with his friends leaving his party barely 30 minutes after they arrived, but the more he looks at them the more he doesn’t want to see what they’d do if they stayed. Louis is grinding on Harry like his own life is on the line, and Niall is a bit envious of them at the moment. They look so satisfied and free and, fuck, he has to get rid of these thoughts right now.  
“Sorry mate, see you tomorrow,” Harry shouts from the door, before leaving the house.  
  
Niall goes back to the sofas and sits right next to Zayn, his heart beating a bit too fast, palms sweating. He definitely needs a good smoke.  
Ten minutes later he’s on the porch with Zayn, Liam, Stan and their girlfriends passing a fat blunt around, courtesy of DJ Malik himself.  
Pot is doing its job very well and Niall feels more relaxed, even in his stupid Prince outfit. He knows he looks good because, c’mon, he’s the perfect Charming with blue eyes and blonde hair and a flawless smile. But he’s nothing compared to Zayn. He looks so hot in black leather, Holy Mother of God, Niall’s still not used to the reactions his body has to the sight of Zayn, but, in the name of what it sacred, he’s never been this hard in his whole life. It’s like a perpetual arousal, which okay, he’s 18 and it’s normal, but to Niall it happens just when Zayn’s around. God knows how much he wanted for him to spend the night with him, but every time his fucking cock has decided that he can’t stay head down for more than 5 fucking minutes and he’s too scared Zayn will eventually notice that.  
  
It’s so frustrating, he’s never wanked as much as he’s doing since he and Zayn started to hang out on a regular basis… which… why does Zayn pay him so much attention he has no idea. Okay, the lad likes him, that’s obvious, but Niall is shit at understanding feelings so… he knows that sometimes it seems Zayn’s looking at him fondly, some other times even hungrily… lately though he seems more sad than anything else. Maybe something is bothering him.  
“Time flies when you’re having fun!”  
Stan’s voice wakes him up from his weird and complicated train of thoughts. He looks around, the house is almost empty, people must have gone home while he was too stoned to realize what was happening around him, but 3 spliffs and he doesn’t even know how many tequila shots would have had a less stronger guy pass away, so cheers to him for being still awake and strangely sober.  
“We’re leaving,” Liam says, taking his Princess under his arms, instantly followed by Stan and Laura.  
“You coming home with us Zayn?” they ask and all Niall can think is pleasestaypleasestaypleasestay.  
“No thanks lads. I have my own car parked over there,” he explains, pointing at his vehicle on the other side of the street.  
They say goodbye to their friends and enter the reception room, starting to clean it up a bit. Of course the maids will do the rest the day after, but Niall thinks it’s a good excuse to spend a little more time with his friend. The word sounds strange in his mind, like he and Zayn are not friends, but what else they could be?  
Maybe Zayn knows the answer, he’s so smart and looks so good and maybe Niall is a bit awestruck when it comes to him.  
  
“Niall,” Zayn calls for him and Niall gets closer, heart beating so fast he thinks he’s gonna jump out of his chest.  
“What’s up man?” he asks and almost chokes on his own saliva when Zayn, instead of talking, starts to sing.

 _“The end of the night_  
_We should say goodbye_  
_But we carry on_  
_While everyone’s gone.”_  
“Fuck he noticed” Niall says, trying to hide the red spreading on his cheeks

 _“Never felt like this before_  
_Are we friends or are we more?”_  
“Wouldn't I like to know!!! You are the smart one here, you tell me”  
_“As I’m walking towards the door, I’m not sure.”_  
“Great, I know nothing about this stuff, and you’re not sure!”

 _“But, baby, if you say you want me to stay_  
_I’ll change my mind”_  
“So you want a sleepover? Just that?”  
_“'Cause I don’t wanna know I’m walking away_  
_If you’ll be mine.”_  
“Yours? As in your friend? Your BFF? Your what?”

 _“Won’t go, won’t go_  
_So, baby, if you say you want me to stay, stay for the night_  
_I’ll change my mind.”_  
Niall’s so nervous he starts giggling quietly, his shoulders shake and Zayn’s arms grab him around them. Niall literally melts into his touch, pressing is forehead against Zayn’s, unable to do much more than breathe at the moment.

 _“Lean in when you laugh,_  
_We take photographs.”_  
“Not now please, I can send you a selfie later if you want,”  
_“There’s no music on_  
_But we dance along.”_  
They start to dance slowly, foreheads now pressed on each other’s shoulders, the embrace so tight Niall thinks Zayn’s gonna squeeze all his insecurities out of him.

 _“Never felt like this before_  
_Are we friends or are we more?_  
_As I’m walking towards the door_  
_I’m not sure.”_  
“I don’t think we’re friends Z… are we? Because I’ve never felt like this before too…”

 _“But, baby, if you say you want me to stay_  
_I’ll change my mind_  
_'Cause I don’t wanna know I’m walking away_  
_If you’ll be mine_  
_Won’t go, won’t go_  
_So, baby, if you say you_ want me to stay, stay for the night  
_I’ll change my mind.”_  
“Stay. Please stay with me and never let me go. I know I’m an annoying imp sometimes, but don’t let me go, don’t leave...”

 _“I’ll change my mind.”_  
“You will? Are you going to stay?”  
“I am” Zayn answers, before the last refrain of the song. Louis is right about this singing thing. It’s contagious and Niall joins in, singing quietly, afraid to ruin the moment but impatient for it to end.

 _“Baby, if you say you want me to stay_  
_I’ll change my mind_  
_But, baby, if you say you want me to stay_  
_I’ll change my mind_  
_'Cause I don’t wanna know I’m walking away_  
_If you’ll be mine_  
_Won’t go, won’t go_  
_So, baby, if you say you want me to stay, stay for the night_  
_I’ll change my mind.”_  
“I don’t know what to say” Niall states once the song is over. He and Zayn are still in each other’s arms and the Irish lad doesn’t really want to change position but he has to.  
He backs off a bit, just enough to watch Zayn and his beautiful deep eyes, and he can’t hold it back anymore.  
He leans in and kisses his lips, just a little peck, just to see what it feels like.  
But Zayn’s not okay with that. He cups his face with his hands and gives him a proper kiss. A French kiss, with tongues and saliva and hands wandering on their bodies and okay, Niall’s definitely gone.  
They kiss for a while, until Zayn frees him from his embrace, lacing their fingers together instead.  
“So, are we going to your bedroom now?” he asks and Niall nods fervently because, for once, he’s actually sure of what he really wants.

***

“Do you think Zayn and Niall are going to solve things tonight?” Harry asks, kissing along Louis’ neck just a few meters from Niall’s door.  
“Can you not talk about other men while we’re doing stuff?” Louis snaps at him but tilts his head a bit, giving Harry more access to the sweet spot under his ear.  
“It’s not like we’re going to do it here, in the middle of the street,” Harry laughs at him and takes a good look at the purple mark forming on his boyfriend’s neck.  
“I know that, you moron, it’s just that…”  
Louis bites at his lip, suddenly nervous. He wants to say a lot of things, but he and Harry have just found their balance after months of struggling, maybe this is just too much too soon.  
“What’s too much?”  
“Did I say it out loud?” Louis blushes, looking at Harry hoping he’s gonna drop the argument very soon.  
“Babe.”  
Harry’s staring at him with a suspicious glare in his eyes. Okay, they’re gonna have this discussion then.  
“I’m sorry Harry. It’s just that… we were on a date right? And I took you away from our friends and an amazing party because I have no control when it comes to you…”  
Harry smile is so big Louis’ scared his face’s gonna split in two.  
“It happens to me too, you know?” Harry grins, literally dragging Louis along the road towards his car.  
“I know, but this way we’re never going to have a proper date!!!” Louis complains and Harry stops in front of the car door, looking at Louis with a strange mischievous look in his eyes.  
Then, all of a sudden, he starts to sing.

 _“Oh, I just wanna take you anywhere that you'd like_  
_We could go out any day, any night.”_  
“Can we?”  
_“Baby I'll take you there, take you there_  
_Baby I'll take you there, yeah.”_  
“I’m ready, where do you wanna take me then?”

 _“Oh, tell me, tell me, tell me, how to turn your love on_  
_You can get, get anything that you want”_  
“I’m already turned on Harry, and I want you of course. And pizza maybe”  
_“Baby just shout it out, shout it out_  
_Baby just shout it out, yeah.”_  
“I WANT YOUUUUUUU!! AND PIZZA TOOOOO. Ehy, it rhymes!!!”

 _“And if you,_  
_You want me too_  
_Let's make a move.”_  
“Are we going home then?”  
Harry is breaking every speed limit ever set by man, and that’s a hell yes to Louis.

 _“Yeah, so tell me love if every time we_  
_To-o-uch_  
_You get this kind of ru-u-ush”_  
“Can’t keep my hands off of you” Louis says, his hands on Harry’s inseem.  
_“Baby, say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah”_  
_If you don't wanna take it slow.”_  
“Nope. Go faster, we’re almost there!”  
_“And you just wanna take me home”_  
“Yes I want, mostly because they’re all at my nana’s.”  
_“Baby, say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah_  
_And let me kiss you.”_  
Harry stops the car in front of Louis’ house and he literally crash their lips together, kissing Louis hard and deep and, thank God the house’s empty.  
They run inside, none of them interested in breaking the kiss and, once inside, they go up the stairs, straight to Louis’ room.  
Harry throws Louis on the bed and the older lad gives him a long blatant onceover just before joining the song with his own words.

 _“Oh, baby, baby, don't you know you got what I need_  
_Looking so good from your head to your feet.”_  
“You’re so fucking hot too Louis, God you drive me crazy.”  
_“Come on come over here, over here_  
_Come on come over here, yeah.”_  
Harry lays down to kiss Louis’ jaw and neck and lips and goes back to his neck, biting and licking every inch of him

 _“Oh, I just wanna show you off to all of my friends_  
_Making them drool down their chinny-chin-chins.”_  
Harry’s hands are working fast, removing Louis’ trousers and pants in a fluid movement that left Louis almost breathless.  
_“Baby, be mine tonight, mine tonight_  
_Baby, be mine tonight, yeah.”_  
“I’m yours baby, all yours” Harry says, while his mouth closes on Louis’ hard dick, licking a long fat stripe from the base to the head, feeling his taste on his tongue.

 _“And if you,_  
_You want me too_  
_Let's make a move_  
_Yeah, so tell me love if every time we_  
_To-o-uch_  
_You get this kind of ru-u-ush_  
_Baby, say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah_  
_If you don't wanna take it slow (c'mon)_  
_And you just wanna take me home_  
_Baby, say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."_  
Harry’s mouth’s doing a hell of a job on Louis cock, and he’s finding the singing thing more difficult by the second. Harry’s left hand is playing with his balls, while the right one is covering half of his hard shaft. Harry’s mouth is sucking on him faster than before, tongue teasing his head, making him moan out loud. Louis starts to raise his hips, until he’s properly fucking Harry’s mouth, his cock hitting the back of Harry’s throat every single time. A couple of thrusts and Louis is coming down Harry's throat, song definitely lost among too many dirty thoughts.  
He leans on Harry, moving his hands on his chest, slowly shifting his head until he reaches Harry’s crotch.  
He looks at his boyfriend in the eyes, putting his tiny hands on his big dick, mouth very close to Harry’s head.  
_“And let me kiss you,”_ he smiles, before sending Harry into oblivion with his pink sinful lips.


	5. Never Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs for this chapter: They Don’t know about us, Moments.  
> Moments is Louis’ solo in the Drama Club Production so I haven’t used the whole song, but a cut and more fitting version. 
> 
> I know Greg James is 31, but I needed Principal James to be older, so you can imagine him at an appropriate age for his role (even though he still looks incredibly hot).
> 
> Sorry I'm late, hope you'll like this!!!

The May sun is warm over Harry’s body. He’s sitting on the grandstands, right behind the bench, watching his boyfriend being the amazing captain and point forward he is.  
Right beside him, Niall is cuddling a slightly injured Zayn while Sophia and Laura, and the other football players’ girlfriends, are cheering the team, yelling at the referee and the other school players here and there.  
The stadium is overcrowded. Almost the whole school and their grandmas are there, along with the other team families and friends. They have been chanting “Payne is our King” for a while now, since Liam has stopped the most unreachable shot of all times. He literally did a somersault mid-air using the pole to flip himself. It was epic and he has never heard the crowd scream so loudly before, not even when Niall sent the winning ball right on the baseline, when even Harry himself had thought it was out.

The real star of the match was Louis though.  
Harry can’t really explain the feeling, but when Louis plays he literally transfigures in this gold God who can set the pace of a match two minutes in and keep it until the end without failing. He maneuvers himself amongst the defenders like the players are not even there. Like they are made of thin air. He scored twice in this game, and created so many chances for his teammates, Harry’s not even surprised they’re winning 5 to 0. With Captain Tommo on the front and Iron Payne defending the goal, the other school has never stood a chance.

They are close to the Cesarini zone, the referee just announced 3 minutes of injury time, but Louis is still one hundred per cent focused on the game, like it doesn’t matter to him how much time is left. He wants to make each minute count.  
Harry thinks that Louis is like that in life too. He always tries to get out the most from each situation, even the most annoying, difficult, unbearable ones. Maybe that’s why he is so overdramatic and full of shit. Because he always lives at the highest point and every time Harry had thought he has stopped falling in love with Louis, his boyfriend has always found a new way to surprise him and Harry can’t really help but falling for him a little more every time.  
  
Last 90 seconds, Payne sends a long shot from his own goal, straight on Stan’s feet, who starts to run towards the centre circle. The second he passes the halfway line, four players are over him, trying to steal the ball. The opposite team seems really desperate to score once at least, maybe just to tell people they were the first to beat Payne in the School Championship.  
“Not gonna happen, sorry,” Harry smiles. Louis runs over from the sideline, Stan gives him the ball and they engage a very fast one-two that takes them in front of the opposite goal. Louis smirks, God, Harry loves him so much, and shoots, putting the ball in the sack.   
The referee’s triple whistle is almost covered by the screaming of the crowd.   
  
Harry runs as fast as he can and he’s on the pitch in no time, calling for Louis. The second Louis sees him he rushes towards him, his hair wet, his eyes shining, and all Harry can do is hugging him very tight, putting his nose in his hair, inhaling heavily.  
“Stop it babe,” Louis protests “I’m all sweaty and I smell like shit!”  
“You smell like victory,” Harry grins at him, before kissing him under the may sun.

***

Two weeks passed and now it’s Louis turn to be sitting on the grandstands with Zayn, watching their boyfriends deal with one of the hardest games of the season. Niall and Harry are at the top of the Double chart and their opponents are just behind them. If they win, team Narry will gain enough points to go solo and basically win the championship two games in advance.  
They are on the fifth set and they have been playing for so long the crowd’s gone visibly tired.  
Louis is worried because the love of his life has been under the sun for hours now. Okay, it’s not summer hotness and it’s a bit windy too, but they’ve been playing for two hours and a half now and that’s too much for anyone who’s not a pro.  
Harry looks tired and Niall looks exhausted, their shots are weaker and the other team is not in better conditions.  
  
They’ve won two games each and this is the last one. They are currently 6-6 so it’s tie-break.  
It’s Harry’s turn to serve and Louis is hella nervous. He knows Harry loves tennis just as much as Louis himself loves football and singing.  
  
He skipped rehearsals to be at the game even though, seeing how it went, he could have gone to the theatre for at least the club meeting, since it was three hours ago.  
He has the lead role, of course, so his presence is highly required at every meeting, but he couldn’t have missed Harry’s game for anything in the world.  
Even though both have always said they don’t want to go pro after school, they still love their sports very much and Louis knows how much Harry wants to win this championship before saying goodbye to tennis for a while.  
  
“Ace,” the chair umpire calls when Harry serves and scores right away.   
“15-Love,” Louis mutters to Zayn and they both giggle because they always mock their boyfriends for that weird way to call the “0 points” score.  
  
Since Ziall became a thing Louis and Zayn’s friendship has reached a new level. Louis feels bad for Stan and Liam, of course, but it’s not like he can go and ask them which flavor of lube is better or which condom makes you feel the most or some tip about anal sex. Louis knows Zayn had sex with his previous boyfriends so he has actual knowledge on the matter. He and Harry have never had penetrative sex with a guy, so they’re both a bit awkward about it because it’s a big step in a relationship and, even though they trust each other like they’ve never trusted anyone before, they still don’t feel ready for that.  
So Louis’ been talking to Zayn a lot and it feels good to have someone to talk about these things.  
  
“It’s match point,” Zayn says, elbowing him a bit too harshly for Louis’ taste but he always loses track of his thoughts and people often have to scroll past him to gain his attention back.  
The score it’s 40-15 for their team and it’s Harry’s turn to serve again.  
Louis’ sweating like mad, his hands are trembling. This is the moment where everything can go down the hill or explode in the sky like a firework.  
“Go firework babe,” he mutters under his breath, crossing his fingers.  
Harry throws the ball in the air, his movement elegant and fluid when he lifts the racket and hits the yellow ball like he hasn’t a three hours game on his muscles.  
It’s down-the-line, fast and precise and hits the ground just in front of Harry’s opponent feet. The lad hits the ball back, trying a stop volley which doesn’t work, and Niall’s ground stroke is strong and dangerous and makes Zayn bounce on the grandstands. The other team still manages to catch the ball and shoot back, but Harry runs over, smashing the ball back on the court, right behind the other lads, almost on the line.  
They won.  
Louis races down the grandstands and runs towards a very tired Harry. When the younger boy turns to face him Louis literally skips the last three steps and jumps inside his arms, lacing his legs around Harry’s frame and kissing him deeply in front of the cheering crowds, like nothing in the world matters but the two of them.

***

“Louis, c’mon babe, it’s late,” Harry calls from downstairs.  
“Coming!” Louis shouts, before grabbing his backpack and join his boyfriend outside the house.  
“Ready to go?” Harry asks, softly pecking his lips.  
Louis grabs his hand and leads him to his car.  
It’s the day after Harry’s match and he has such a good feeling, like everything’s going to be amazing and shining and all the great things in the world.  
“I feel very lucky you know?” he states, looking fondly at Harry who smiles wide, without moving his eyes from the road.  
“I know, I feel lucky too.”  
“Can one die of happiness? Because I feel so happy I think I’m gonna pass out sooner or later.”  
Harry laughs out loud, the same kind of laugh Louis fell in love with years before.  
Yeah, it’ going to be an incredible beautiful fantastic day.

  
“And then the shit hits the fan,” Louis mumbles, half angry, half annoyed, half mad and half something else and yeah he has a lot of halves, sue him.  
The minute they entered school, Mrs Fernandez was already there, waiting for them with a sad smile on her face.  
“Principal James wants to see you,” she explained and escorted them to the Principal’s office, where she offered them hot chocolate with whipped cream from the teacher’s recreation room, which is very good but also very bad because it means the Principal has some nasty news for them.  
“I’m so sorry guys,” she said them, before leaving, muttering something about “stupid bigots” and “ignorant morons”.  
And here they are, outside Mr. James’ office, waiting to know what happened he had to summon them so early in the morning.  
Mr. James is a very nice person, most of the students even call him Greg on informal occasions, and Louis and Harry had never had a problem with him  
They are among the ten best students in school, along with Zayn, Niall and Sophia.  
Liam turned out to be 12th last year, still is, which is a great results of course, but for a while he has complained about being brainless until Stan pointed out he was 15th, so he was the dumbest one and how Liam very dared to steal his spot.  
He was giggling by himself when Mr. James calls for them from his office.

The room is big, with big white modern furniture, an amazing mahogany desk and a flat screen in a corner with an Xbox under it. Principal James likes to play videogames during his lunch break and sometimes, when a student obtains very good results he invites them over to “have some fun after such hard work”.  
Louis’ a bit in love with him, and the fact that he still looks like he’s a hot model in his late twenties instead of a regular man in his mid-forties, doesn’t help at all. He also doesn’t age. Louis’ been there for 13 years now and he always looked the same. Maybe he’s a vampire, he has to put him under the sun and verify his theory.  
They sit in the comfortable armchairs in front of the desk and wait for him to speak, but Greg is looking at them with a weird expression, halfway between sad and angry. What the hell has happened?  
“What the hell has happened?”  
Louis looks at Harry, a bit surprised he has just voiced his thoughts, but they’ve been close long enough to develop some supernatural ability.  
Mr. James crosses his fingers under his chin, elbows firm on the desk.  
“I received a letter,” he says, and his voice trembles a little, like he’s trying to contain disgust.  
“From who?” Louis asks, curiosity increasing inside his mind.  
“The Catholic Parents association.”  
“Who?”  
“A group of very religious people that was at both your games yesterday and two weeks ago.”   
His tone is full of sadness, what the hell did they write to him?  
“Here.”   
Mr. James passes them a piece of yellow paper, a print saying “ _God sees you_ ” in the up right corner.

 _“Dear Mr. James,_  
_I’m Amanda Clark and, as you know very well, I’m the Clark twins’ mother and the head of the Catholic Parents Association of this town. I was in your school on both May 2nd and May 10th to watch the football and the tennis games. My sons play in the teams and I was very proud of them and I thought it was safe for them to play such good sports._  
_What I saw at the end of both games was incredibly wrong and I think I’m gonna take my beloved children away from such monstrosity, and the other parents agree with me._  
_What I saw, and I’m ashamed to even talk about it, were two very public and heated kisses between the football captain Louis Tomlinson and tennis double player Harry Styles._  
_They kissed in front of everyone, where little kids could see them. I pay a lot of money for my kids to study in your school and I can’t tolerate that an abomination like that is perpetrated in front of innocent eyes by two students that act like they own this school, when they’re here thanks to the scholarships I contributed to pay for._  
_I’m asking you to separate those kids and save their souls from hell, whilst gaining redemption for yourself too. They are too young to know what love is, they maybe think they love each other, but they don’t. They’re not educated enough to understand real love is just between a man and his wife._  
_I’m asking politely now, but if you don’t make them tone it down I’ll be forced to call the school supervisor._  
_Sure of your positive and pristine reply, I send my regards._  
_Yours seriously genuinely concerned,_  
_Amanda Clark.”_

Louis drops the paper on the desk and looks at Harry, searching for any emotions different from anger or disgust but there’s none.  
He turns to watch Mr. James and he really doesn’t know what to say. How to ask him what he’s going to do.  
“I received this letter yesterday, like an hour after the game,” Greg explains “and I immediately called in an urgent meeting of the board council. You know this school has a strong anti-bullying policy and this…” he points at the letter “this is bullshit at its finest. We won’t let her do anything to you or to the school.”  
Louis relaxes in his seat and feels Harry do the same.  
If the school board and the Principal have their back, they’re gonna be okay.  
“Do you want to call your parents in? I think they should be informed, but I’ve wanted to talk to you privately first, to tell you we are going to support you one hundred per cent. You didn’t hear me say that, but I literally hate Amanda Clark. She’s so full of shit there’s no room left in her for a functioning brain.”  
Harry and Louis snort at the same time, looking at Mr. James in disbelief.  
“Well Greg” Louis says “I think we deserve a morning off and some Xbox,” he suggests and Harry grins at the Principal.  
“You’re totally right,” Mr James agrees, already turning the tv on.  
  
The morning flies away quickly. Greg let them do what they want and Louis thinks they really deserved it. That letter was so full of hatred and rudeness and he feels so bad about it, that someone in the world can be that bitter about something as beautiful as their love.  
“They know nothing,” he grunts, reaching Harry near the school gate.  
The Clark twins pass beside them, sending them apologetic looks and Louis nods at them smiling a little, but they don’t return the smile, walking straight to the other side of the street where a black huge suv is parked.  
The driver is a good looking man with a black hat. He goes off the car to help the twins go inside, and then he sits back at his place, without leaving his spot on the street.  
“Why are they still here?” Louis asks, but the answer presents itself in front of them. Amanda Clark and her disciples are marching towards the school, looking at them in a badly concealed disgust.  
Louis starts to breath heavily. Their stares are so heavy on him, he can feel them, like big hands ready to beat him and bring him back to the straight side of the road.  
He’s never been a victim of bullism, but he always thought that if it was going to happen it would have come from someone his age, not from adults.  
Don’t they know how much it hurts to feel unsafe in your own school?  
“Lou, babe...”  
Harry hugs him very tight with one arm, dragging him on the other side of the street, entering the park in front of the school. They sit on a bench among the trees, looking at the beautiful nature surrounding them.  
“Are you okay?”  
“I don’t know Harry… That woman’s words must have touched me deeper than I thought… I feel like we can’t kiss or hug in public anymore, even if I know it’s not true, her words made me feel like I’m wrong and dirty and a sinner.”  
Harry cuddles him closer, softly kissing his hair.  
“They can’t decide what we are,” Harry states, looking at him straight in the eyes “We love each other, they have no say in it.”

 _“People say we shouldn’t be together_  
_We're too young to know about forever.”_  
Harry’s voice reaches Louis and he knew it was coming. Singing is their way to solve things, isn’t it?  
_“But I say they don’t know what they're talk-talk-talkin’ about.”_  
“They absolutely don’t.”

 _“'Cause this love is only getting stronger.”_  
“You can bet it is.”  
_“So I don’t wanna wait any longer_  
_I just wanna tell the world that you're mine love.”_  
“All yours,” Louis says, a big smile on his face.

 _“They don’t know about the things we do_  
_They don’t know about the "I love you"s_  
_But I bet you if they only knew_  
_They would just be jealous of us.”_  
“Because we’re amazing love, best couple in the world.”  
_“They don’t know about the up all nights.”_  
“And that’s a good thing if you ask me so.”  
_“They don’t know I've waited all my life_  
_Just to find a love that feels this right.”_  
“Me too Harry, me too.”  
_“Baby they don’t know about, they don’t know about us.”_  
Louis lets Harry embrace him and looks at him with all the love he can, before starting on his own verse.

 _“One touch and I was a believer_  
_Every kiss it gets a little sweeter.”_  
“You, Louis Tomlinson, gave me the best snog sessions of my whole life.”  
_“It’s getting better_  
_Keeps getting better all the time, love.”_  
“I fall for you every day a little more, Lou, you’re my own miracle.”  
“Sap!”  
“I know.”  
They laugh together, before starting on the chorus, their voices melted in one.

 _“They don’t know about the things we do_  
_They don’t know about the "I love you"s_  
_But I bet you if they only knew_  
_They would just be jealous of us,_  
_They don’t know about the up all nights_  
_They don’t know I've waited all my life_  
_Just to find a love that feels this right_  
_Baby they don’t know about, they don’t know about us.”_

 _“They don’t know how special you are_  
_They don’t know what you’ve done to my heart_  
_They can say anything they want_  
_'Cause they don’t know us.”_  
Louis sings his words softly, his voice like a caress, like velvet, like everything Harry has ever needed and now has for real. And it’s with that thought in mind that he begins his next lines.  
_“They don’t know what we do best_  
_It's between me and you, our little secret_  
_But I wanna tell 'em_  
_I wanna tell the world that you're mine, love.”_  
“You know I’m yours, now and as long as we both shall live.”  
“You haven’t quoted twilight mid-song,” Harry replies, almost outraged.  
“I have,” Louis smirks, and Harry spins him around, before catching him and start to sing together again.

 _“They don’t know about the things we do_  
_They don’t know about the "I love you"s_  
_But I bet you if they only knew_  
_They would just be jealous of us_  
_They don’t know about the up all nights_  
_They don’t know I've waited all my life_  
_Just to find a love that feels this right_  
_Baby they don’t know about, they don’t know about us.”_  
“Suck it bigots” Louis shouts, dancing around the park with his boyfriend and the omnipresent back up dancers.

 _“They don’t know about the things we do_  
_They don’t know about the "I love you"s_  
_But I bet you if they only knew_  
_They would just be jealous of us,_  
_They don’t know about the up all nights_  
_They don’t know I've waited all my life_  
_Just to find a love that feels this right_  
_Baby they don’t know about, they don’t know about us_  
_They don’t know about us_  
_They don’t know about us.”_  
Their life might be a weird, overdramatic, very noisy musical mess, but it’s theirs and no one is gonna change the way Louis and Harry feel when their lips crash together and they know for sure they belong to each other.

***

It’s Sunday and Harry and Louis are in Harry’s garden, under a tree with a blanket and a couple of beers.  
They are peacefully cuddling and Louis feels good and calm and happy for the first time in days.  
The last week has been incredibly long and painful, but at the end it seems they got rid of that horrible woman.  
Amanda Clark has done her very best to destroy them and the school, even more when she found out they weren’t the only official gay couple in the school. She attacked Cara and Kendall, Zayn and Niall and even Nick and Michael, poor guys. They were in the school hall, chatting and eating some crisps when Nick took something away from Michael’s hair. That demon woman was there to talk to Greg again and, as soon as she saw them, she started screaming and yelling and praying God to save us all from the flames of hell.  
On Wednesday Johanna and Anne, Harry’s mom, went to her house holding hands and yelled at her a lot. They told her to stay away from their sons, to mind her own business and that she was going to have a very hard time in a very short time.  
She has laughed, looking at them like they were nothing. Louis was so mad at her, but he knew that she would have nothing to laugh about very soon.  
On Thursday, as predicted, Zayn’s dad came over from London to talk to her. Five minutes with one of the best and most famous lawyers in the entire United Kingdom and Amanda left the school for good.  
She isn’t going to harass them again, so that was a pretty good victory.  
“Love always wins,” he breathes on Harry’s lips, before kissing him deeply, his hand running in his curls.  
  
Louis’ just sitting on Harry’s lap when Anne comes out with a letter.  
“Hey Harry,” she says “This has arrived earlier for you.”  
“Impossible,” Harry states and Louis grins because he knows where is boyfriend’s going to go.  
“Why is it impossible they delivered a letter for you?” Anne asks him, frowning a bit.  
“Because it’s Sunday.”  
“So?”  
“There’s no post on Sunday. Every Harry knows that.”  
Louis snorts and then laughs so loudly he almost chokes on his own breath.  
Anne laughs too, admitting the letter arrived on Thursday but the Amanda thing made her forget about it.  
  
“What’s that anyway?” Louis asks, while Harry takes the letter from his mother’s hands.  
“OH!!! It’s King’s college!!!” Harry says, showing Louis the envelope with the university name printed on it.  
“What are you waiting for? Open it!!!” Louis exclaims, overexcited. They need some good news after the hell of a week they’ve been through.  
Harry opens the letter and stares at its content for a while, hiding the papers from Louis’ eyes.  
“Let me seeee,” the older boy complains, but Harry keeps him out of reach.  
Harry’s eyes run the words over and over, and Louis’ becoming really impatient, and Anne with him.  
“Tell us something Harry!!” she hisses, catching his son’s attention.  
Harry looks at them with an empty stare and Louis’ already feeling tears pooling in his eyes because Harry seems so sad and what if he didn’t get in? What if they have to separate?  
But even Louis knows this is bullshit, Harry’s grades are too good and the essay he wrote for the application was amazing, so there’s no doubt he got in.  
“I got in.”  
Louis jumps up at that, starting to dance around with Anne, both laughing happily and Harry can’t help but smile wide and join them.  
They’re going to college. If he got in, then Louis got in too, so nothing can come between them now.

***  
  
“Any news?”  
“Nothing.”  
“Not even in your account?”  
“It keeps say ‘application in progress’ and nothing else.”  
It’s been a week since Harry has received his letter from King’s college and they’re waiting for Louis’ one now. Everyday it’s an agony, because Louis has started to freak out, and he can’t just freak out as normal people do. He has to make everything bigger and sadder and he hasn’t mentioned aliens stealing his confirmation letter yet, but Harry has faith he’s almost there.  
“Maybe the mailman lost it??” Louis asks “Or he’s been kidnapped by aliens on his way to my place”  
And there you go. Aliens.  
Why is Harry in love with Louis again? Because at the moment he can’t really remember.  
“Babe. I love you from the bottom of my everything, I promise. Can you just stop overthinking this for a while? You’ll have your letter soon enough and we’ll go to London together and everything’s gonna be fine.”  
“But we sent our applications together, it’s weird I haven’t received mine yet!!!”  
“Different degrees, remember? Maybe they have separate boards to evaluate the applications, we don’t know that.”  
Louis seems convinced and lets the topic go for a while.

***  
  
Two more weeks passed but no news from the King’s College for Louis.  
The site still labels his application as “in progress” and Louis has already given up. He’s talking about being left behind, that their relationship won’t survive, that Harry is going to meet fancy people in London and that his peasant boyfriend in Manchester will soon be more a burden than anything else.  
Harry has tried to talk him out of this spiral of shit, but Louis has stopped listening to him. To all of them actually.  
Niall and Zayn applied for King’s college too and their applications are still “In progress” too. They tried to tell that much at Louis, but he didn’t listen. He told them to fuck off and stormed out of his own bedroom like the house was on fire.  
Harry is out of options, even Stan’s helpless. It’s Liam, eventually, that comes up with the best idea ever.  
“We can go on a trip, like a little vacation, with tents and sleeping bags, and we can sing songs around a bonfire and play games… just the 6 of us? A lads’ night into the wild?”  
Harry and the other guys agree instantly and then the curly boy goes to Louis to tell him what they’ve decided, sure his boyfriend’s going to be thrilled by the idea.  
He finds Louis in the auditorium, sitting on the edge of the stage, feet dangling over the orchestra bunker.  
“Hey Babe,” Harry addresses him, trying to smile as wide as he can, ¬but Louis doesn’t look at him.  
He sits beside him, sliding an arm on his shoulders. Louis snuggles in, letting Harry cuddle him, sighing heavily.  
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, so slowly Harry’s not sure he has heard him right. Harry’s neck’s wet from Louis’ tears, his boy is crying in silence, small sobs shaking his back.  
“You know love, Liam suggested we go camping in the woods!! It’d be fun, what do you think?” he says trying to sound happy, but he instantly feels Louis shaking his head against his shoulder.  
“Can we… can just be the two of us? I want to be with you all the time, day and night, until you’ll leave for London…” Louis pleads and Harry gives up almost right away.  
“Okay, we can. I won’t leave your side, I promise. Am I allowed to go to the bathroom by myself or…”  
Louis week laughter reverberates against Harry’s chest, and the younger boy holds his arms tighter around his love’s tiny waist.  
“Can I kiss you?” he asks, and Louis looks at him with swollen red eyes and Harry’s heart is breaking because he really doesn’t know what to do.  
So he kisses Louis like there’s no tomorrow. Like it’s the first and last time. Like the world is about to end and Louis kisses him back desperately, grabbing at his shirt like it’s the only whole thing in a collapsing world.  
“Are you staying for rehearsal?” Louis asks and Harry nods.  
“I’ll be in the audience, front row,” he replies, kissing him again.

Half of an hour later, after texting the boys they’ll have to reschedule the camping thing, Harry is parked on one of the red chairs, watching the worst musical ever created.  
No, that’s not correct. It’s a great musical, the songs and the story are so touching, but there’s a part where the two main characters have to actually part ways for two years, and it’s sounds so much like their own situation Harry’s pretty sure it contributed a lot to Louis’ current mood.

Louis’ on stage and he looks so good, he has this nerdy look, with thick glasses and shitty hair and the worst sweater ever seen by man.  
The lights dim and the bull’s eye is on Louis in the middle of the stage. He points his eyes to Harry’s and then he starts to sing.

 _“Shut the door_  
_Turn the light off_  
_I wanna be with you_  
_I wanna feel your love_  
_I wanna lay beside you_  
_I cannot hide this_  
_Even though I try.”_  
Something’s off. Harry can tell that since the very first notes. Louis’ voice is usually clear and high in pitch and soft, like a caress. He has this vibe that sooths you and cuddles you. Now it’s almost empty. Weak and fragile, like it’s going to break one minute or another.

 _“Hands are silent_  
_Voice is numb_  
_Try to scream out my lungs_  
_It makes this harder_  
_And the tears stream down my face.”_  
Louis eyes are full of tears again, Harry can see them even from his position, and it’s not good. His boy’s crashing in front of his eyes and… he has to know this is not the end, he has to understand Harry’s gonna be his for the rest of their lives.

 _“If we could only have this life_  
_For one more day_  
_If we could only turn back time.”_  
“But we don’t have to, Louis, we don’t,” Harry mutters, trying to send his thoughts through his eyes, but Louis’ not looking at him anymore.

 _“You know I’ll be_  
_Your life_  
_Your voice_  
_Your reason to be_  
_My love_  
_My heart_  
_Is breathing for this_  
_Moment_  
_In time_  
_I’ll find the words to say_  
_Before you leave me today.”_  
Louis’ voice is a mess, broken by tears and sobs, but he’s still singing, like he doesn’t want to stop, like he has to take it all out before it’s too late.

 _“Flashing lights in my mind_  
_Going back to the time_  
_Playing games in the street_  
_Kicking balls with my feet_  
_There’s a numb in my toes_  
_Standing close to the edge_  
_There’s a pile of my clothes_  
_At the end of your bed_  
_As I feel myself fall_  
_Make a joke of it all...”_  
And then he cracks. Louis falls on his knees, hands covering his face and Harry is on him in a second, covering him with his arms and body and holding him as tight as he can without hurting him.  
Louis hides his face in Harry’s hoodie, crying and crying and Harry can’t do this anymore.  
He puts an arm under Louis’ knees and one on his back as he lifts him, like he weighs nothing.  
Louis puts his own arms around Harry’s neck, with no strength left to say much more than “Take me home please,” and then he faints into his boyfriend’s embrace.


	6. Ready to Run

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs for the chapter: You&I, Ready to Run
> 
> In Ready to Run everyone sings his own solo so you should know who’s singing even without me saying it before.  
> Usually the deadline for Universities to answer applications sent in January is May 5. I needed to postpone it for fictional purposes so I extended the deadline to June 8. Hope no one minds^^  
> There's a bit of smut so i added the tags, but as you all know I'm shit at it, sorry XD
> 
> This is for Bianka, i love you babe, stay strong.

Niall and Zayn are making out in the chemistry lab and Zayn is thinking that his boyfriend is really soft.  
His skin is so smooth, feels like velvet under Zayn’s fingers, and it’s addictive. Zayn hasn’t stopped touching him since the costume party two months ago.  
“You are so soft,” he says to Niall and the blonde boy smiles fondly at him.  
“Thank you babe,” Niall replies giggling a bit, before grabbing the back of Zayn’s hair, closing the distance between them, starting to kiss him again.  
Their tongues are dancing slowly, exploring their mouths while their hands are running over each other’s bodies, curious and lascivious at the same time.  
  
Zayn’s ringtone for Liam (Girl On Fire by Alicia Keys) interrupts them and it’s so rare for Liam to call when they’re all at school that Zayn wastes no time at all before answering, putting him on speakers.  
“What’s up man?” Zayn asks, both him and Niall frowning in concern when some unknown music comes from the phone.  
“Z!!! Can you hear me?” Liam shouts through the speakers “Wait a sec, I have to go out of the auditorium”  
Oh, so the music is from the Drama Club Rehearsals. What is Liam doing there?  
“Z, you still there?”  
“Yes man, what happened?”  
“I was in the auditorium retrieving Louis’ stuff.”  
“Why???”  
“You don’t know? Thought Harry has written to all of us!!!”  
Zayn’s and Niall look at their notifications. None of them has heard the phones, busy as they were with each other’s mouths.  
“Fuck we haven’t seen them,” Niall says “I’m so sorry, shit.”  
Harry has sent them similar texts, explaining Louis’ situation and asking them to retrieve his stuff from the locker and the theatre.  
“Did you already take his stuff from his locker?” Zayn asks, getting up from the teacher desk where he and Niall were laying and going towards the door, Niall right behind him, their free hands joined together.  
“Nope, I’m on my way though,” Liam replies, breathing heavily, like he is running while speaking.  
“We are nearer” Zayn states “See you at the gate in 10.”  
He ends the call and runs with Niall as fast as he can. Their friend needs them, they have to hurry up.  
  
Nine minutes later they arrive at the gate, where Liam and Stan are already waiting for them.  
“How is he now?” Niall asks and he looks so worried Zayn wants to cover him in tiny little kisses, but it’s not the right moment and he’s really not in the mood for anything sexual.  
“He’s in bed. His temperature is high, around 39°C… I knew he was holding back too much, this thing was literally killing him,” Stan explains while going to his car. They jump inside as fast as they can and Stan drives them to Louis’ house.  
Niall’s sitting on the back seat with Zayn, pondering about what’s happening to Louis and something’s not quite right.  
The deadline for Uni to answer their applications was June 8th, which means 5 days ago. Both him and Zayn have received their confirmation letters in time, but they hadn’t told that much to Louis because he was too upset. Then he started to hide in the auditorium every single day and they hadn’t had the chance to ask him about it but at this point probably he didn’t get in. Which is really really weird.  
When they arrive at Louis’ home, Harry is outside waiting for them.  
  
“Is he still asleep?” Liam asks, handing Harry Louis’ bag and clothes.  
“Yeah he is,” he replies, leading them into the house. “The girls are still at school and Johanna just went to retrieve them so it’s just me and Louis now…”  
“What are you going to do?” Stan questions, sitting on the sofa in the living room.  
“I don’t know… I think we’ll stay in Manchester at this point… I’m not going to London by myself.”  
Niall is confused.  
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” he voices, catching Zayn’s hand between his own two and starting to play with his fingers.  
“Don’t be sorry. What doesn’t sound right to you?”  
“How is it possible that Louis didn’t get in? He is the best student here, we know his essay was perfect and his short movie was superb, funny and hilarious. What’s wrong with those people?”  
Harry hesitates.  
  
He knows the deadline was five days ago and as soon as he realized Louis didn’t get in, he gave up on King’s College right away.  
He doesn’t want to leave Louis, so his first thought was to stay with him and go to Manchester University. Okay, it may not be as fancy as King’s college, but he belongs where Louis is, so he can go to Uni in Antarctica if Louis’ going to be with him  
They can stay at their parents’ places or share a little apartment near the campus. Harry has already visited a couple of accommodations, a very nice two bedroom with an amazing kitchen and a rustic one bedroom with a very low rent.  
He’s also planned to find a job, and has sent CVs around, and even did an interview to work in a flower shop. He loves having everything set very far in advance and since it’s still June he’s really proud of himself for what he has already done.  
But now that Niall’s made him think about it, Louis has never said once “I didn’t get in.”  
He always said “They haven’t answered yet.” but that’s impossible. Even without the physical letter, the website must say if he got in or not.  
Truth be told, the letter can actually be lost in the mess that is Louis’ bedroom, which is literally covered in dirty clothes, empty bottles of water, books and copybooks, and even more stuff Harry doesn’t want to think about. His boyfriend hadn’t cleaned that much since this story begun.  
  
“Should I check his account?” Harry asks his friends, that nod frantically, all anxious to know if this story will have a happy ending or not.  
Harry retrieves his laptop from Louis’ bedroom and goes on the King’s website. He logs off his own account and enters Louis username and password.  
His eyes become wide and he puts a hand in front of his mouth to stop the scream of joy that was coming out of his throat.  
“Did he got in?” Niall asks and Harry nods.  
“YES!!” Niall shouts, and everyone shush him at the same time, while giggling and laughing and smiling happily.  
“Why hasn’t he checked his account? And where’s his letter?” Liam asks, voicing what every one of them was thinking.  
“I have no idea,” Harry responds “But I have a strong feeling that the letter might be in Louis’ bedroom under some pile of dirt and he hadn’t checked his account because he’s an idiot. But that’s also one of the reasons I fell in love with him in the first place, so I guess it’s okay.”  
The boys laugh quietly and get up to leave. They hug Harry goodbye and the curly boy watch them drive away, before going back to assist his boyfriend, who’s still asleep in his bedroom.  
"I better start cleaning off this mess," Harry thinks to himself as he starts rummaging through the piles of dirty clothes. "Might even find that letter.”

***

The room is dark and Louis feels like he’s suffocating.  
He’s surrounded by people and he thinks he can actually recognize some of them. They’re all couples and they’re all dead or they left each other for good. Romeo and Juliet are in the middle of the room, Enjorlas and Grantaire are talking to them, and so is Eponine. Her love for Marius, though unrequited, is still so pure and strong and so full of pain, and pain is all Louis can feel right now.  
Someone’s walking towards him, someone he knows very well. His mother and his sister’s dad are there too, splendid example of how something perfect can be destroyed in a second.  
And then there’s them. Isaac and Stacey, the main characters of the school musical. In the original book their love story doesn’t survive the two years apart and they marry other people. They find their way back to each other just when it’s too late, when they’re too old to enjoy it.  
People start to disappear and the walls begin to come closer, the darkness is so thick he can’t see his own hands in front of his eyes. The room is literally going to crash him to death very soon and all he wants to do is screaming, but he can’t because there’s no air in his lungs, he’s underwater and he can’t breathe, he’s going to die soon, he doesn’t want to die, he has to… Harry. He needs to talk to Harry, he doesn’t want to lose him, he can’t live without him, but he’s so tired and he has no strength to fight and…

“Louis! Louis, babe!! Wake up love.”  
Louis opens his eyes and the first thing he sees are big green worried eyes and a mop of chocolate soft curls leaning over him, while big hands are scrolling past his shoulders, strongly but gently.  
The fog in his mind starts to clear and he can finally focus on his boyfriend, sitting on his bed, comforting him with a wet cloth.  
“Harry?”  
“I’m here.”  
“What… what happened? The last thing I remember is me singing on stage and nothing more.”  
Harry looks at him fondly, his hand petting Louis’ hair.  
“You fainted mid-song… you started crying so much and then you fell and so I took you home. Your temperature was very high, you were literally burning… so I gave you some paracetamol and some water and I put you in bed. You’ve been asleep for more than 13 hours…”  
“What time is it now?” Louis gulped, feeling a little lost.  
“It’s 5 in the morning,” Harry says, still caressing him like he’s the most precious thing in the world.  
“And… and you’ve been here all the time?” Louis asks, his voice weak and insecure.  
“I’ve never left. Your mom told me several times to go home or in Lottie and Fiz’ bedroom to take a nap, but I didn’t want to stay away from you so…”  
Louis starts to cry again.  
He doesn’t deserve Harry. He really doesn’t. He’s been stubborn and stupid and he gave up on them so easily while Harry was fighting with nails and teeth for their love.  
“You are an angel,” he says, pulling Harry down to kiss him and Harry lets him, holding him tight in his warm embrace.  
  
“You were screaming earlier,” Harry remarks when their mouths part, a little trace of saliva still linking their swollen lips together.  
Louis cleans his mouth with the back of his hand, exhaling heavily.  
“I was having a very bad dream…” he admits, a sad note in his voice.  
Harry reaches for his hand, intertwining their fingers, his thumb drawing invisible circles on Louis’ skin.  
“Do you want to talk about it?”  
Louis nods and gets up to retrieve something from a drawer in his bookcase.  
Harry looks at the pictures Louis’ handing him and frowns. He’s looking at two black and white pictures of Johanna with two men Louis doesn’t know, but some of their traits make him think they might be her ex-husbands.  
“I dreamed about people in love that didn’t have happy endings,” he explains, sadness so obvious in his voice.  
“This,” he says, pointing at the first picture “this is my birthfather. My mom always told me she was very much in love with him, but he left her when I was less than two weeks old so I have no memories of them together. After him, she met Mark.”  
Louis lifts the other photograph, so Harry can see it better.  
Johanna has a beautiful wedding dress and she looks happy, Harry can see her cheeks are colored, despite the black and white filter the photographer used to take the picture.  
“She seems very happy,” the curly boy states, looking at Louis.  
“She has been, for a while. Mark has been the only dad I’ve ever had, he gave me his last name, he played football with me and I was so happy to finally have a whole family, with beautiful little sisters, it was like a family show. But then he left too. Everybody leaves, love’s not meant to last, Harry.”  
Harry stays quiet for a while, Louis’ words sinking into his soul but then he shakes his head, and looks at Louis with such hopeful eyes, the older boy can’t help but smile at him. A smile that becomes wider as soon as Harry starts to sing.

 _“I figured it out_  
_I figured it out from black and white_  
_Seconds and hours_  
_Maybe they had to take some time.”_  
“Maybe they had to end things to make them better,” Louis says, feeling his sadness filling his heart once again.

 _“I know how it goes_  
_I know how it goes for wrong and right_  
_Silence and sound_  
_Did they ever hold each other_  
_Tight like us_  
_Did they ever fight like us.”_  
“I don’t know if I have the strength to fight Harry…”

 _“You and I_  
_We don't want to be like them_  
_We can make it till the end.”_  
“Can we? Are we going to last?”

 _“Nothing can come between_  
_You and I_  
_Not even the gods above_  
_Could separate the two of us_  
_No nothing can come between_  
_You and I_  
_Oohh You and I...”_  
“Oh Harry I don’t know…”  
“Do you love me?”  
“Yes.”  
“So just listen to me.”

 _“I figured it out_  
_Saw the mistakes of up and down_  
_Meet in the middle_  
_There's always room for common ground.”_  
Louis can see where Harry is going, can understand how to make things works and maybe… maybe there’s hope, maybe they can really do it. The ice and the fear in his heart melt away, and it’s with a new hope in his eyes that he starts to sing.

 _“I see what it's like_  
_I see what it's like for day and night_  
_Never together_  
_Cause they see things in a different light_  
_Like us_  
_They never tried like us.”_  
Harry hugs him tight, he’s so happy Louis’ finally understood that they’re meant to be, so he sings the refrain with his lips an inch apart from Louis’, whose stare is finally full of love and hope and yeah, they’re going to make it, they’re going to last.

 _“You and I_  
_We don't want to be like them_  
_We can make it till the end_  
_Nothing can come between_  
_You and I_  
_Not even the gods above_  
_Could separate the two of us.”_  
“You are the love of my life Harry Styles and one day I’m gonna marry you and we’re going to be so happy that the whole world will look at us and see that ours is the truest love that mankind has ever witnessed.”  
“Omg, and you call me a sap,” Harry laughs, but he never felt happier than he is now.

 _“'Cause You and I_  
_We don't want to be like them_  
_We can make it till the end_  
_Nothing can come between You and I_  
_Not even the gods above_  
_Could separate the two of us_  
_No nothing can come between_  
_You and I_  
_We can make it if we try_  
_You and I...”_  
  
“So,” Louis says, pecking Harry’s lips “are you going to marry me, one day?”  
Harry blushes but nods, cupping Louis’ jaw with his hands and kissing him deeply. He felt so helpless earlier, watching Louis collapse onto himself, but now he knows he has his boy by his side and everything’s gonna be fine.  
“Of course I’m going to marry you,” he confirms “But I’ll be the one proposing when the time will come,” he states firmly.  
“We’ll see,” Louis smirks, laying on his bed and Harry’s over him in a second, kissing him again, and again and one more time.  
“Have you cleaned my room?” Louis asks when they part, a very surprised tone in his voice.  
“Yes I did love,” Harry smiles at him “And I found something for you under three layers of clothes and piles of videogame cases!!!”  
Harry takes an envelope from the nightstand and gives it to Louis.  
“This is…”  
Louis can’t believe his own eyes. That’s his letter from King’s College. If it was under the videogames it must have been there for… what? Two weeks at least?  
“How in hell did it end up there?” Louis questions and he’s so confused that he doesn’t even realize at first that Harry actually knows the answer.  
“I might have dropped some questions here and there…” he smirks and Louis looks a little baffled and Harry laughs because he’s hilarious and amazing and Harry loves him very much.  
“I asked to your sisters you idiot!!! Lottie said your mom sent her to pick up the mail and that she put the letter on your desk and then forgot to tell you. It must have fallen or something and that’s how all this chaos begun in the first place.”  
“Because of my sister’s negligence?”  
“No. Because you don’t clean your bedroom!! And also because you haven’t checked your account after the deadline!!”  
“What? The deadline is June 23rd!!!”  
“Oh my God, no Louis, it’s not!! That’s the deadline to reply to them!! All this chaos because you are a stubborn messy idiot! Never loved you as much as I love you now though,”  
Louis looks at him with watery eyes and a sad little smile and Harry thinks he’s gonna die very soon because he is too cute to be true.  
“We’re going to London. Together.” Louis exclaims, like the thought just hit him.  
“Yes, we definitely are,” Harry says, but he’s not as happy as he thought he would be. There is so much to do and he already wasted a lot of time preparing himself for Manchester… but now it’s not the moment to talk about it. Now Louis’ kissing him again and that’s all he wants to think about for a while.

***

The day of their graduation is glorious. Even more glorious is the night of their graduation because the eight of them are all at Niall’s, of course, intoxicated off the good ol’ weed and laughing like mad men.  
“I’m high as a kite,” Harry says, giggling by himself against Louis’ shoulder. He’s feeling hot and horny and he wants to fuck Louis onto the mattress until he cries in pleasure.  
“HARRY!!!” Liam shouts, almost shocked.  
“Oops,” Harry giggles again “I didn’t mean to say it out loud.”  
Louis is so red he might probably catch fire at any moment now.  
“I love you so much Boo Bear,” he whispers in Louis’ ear and Louis leans more into him, his tiny hand casually colliding with Harry’s hard cock.  
“I think I might have to go to the bathroom,” Louis says and gets up, his bum dangerously near to Harry’s face.  
“I want to eat him out so badly.”  
“HARRY!!!”  
“Sorry Li.”  
The lads start laughing again, Niall’s in Zayn’s lap and they look so happy Harry wants to kiss them both.  
And so he does because apparently when he’s high his inhibitors go straight to hell.  
He kisses Niall first, they’ve been friends for so long, and then Zayn, and their lips are so good and he wants more, but not from them. He wants his boyfriend now, wants his big round soft bum in his hands and his hard cock in his mouth.  
Harry goes inside, straight to the bathroom but Louis’ not there. Maybe he went in the loo upstairs, so Harry takes a quick wee and runs up the stairs as fast as he can. He might be stoned as fuck right now but he’s also so horny his body heat is expelling pot through his pores.  
  
“It was about damn time.”  
Louis’ voice comes from Niall’s brother bedroom. Greg’s at uni in London so he won’t be bothered if they clean after.  
Harry’s on Louis in a blink of an eye. Their tongues meet before their mouths do, and it’s so hot Harry’s going to explode if he can’t touch Louis skin right away.  
“I want you so much,” Louis says and Harry nods frantically, unbuttoning Louis’s shirt as fast as he can and finally, finally, he can touch his skin. He starts mouthing at his collarbones and neck, and he bites and licks and sucks because the whole world has to see Louis is his and nobody else’s.  
“I love you Louis,” he reminds him, while helping him lay down on the bed and removing his trousers and pants all at once.  
He puts his mouth on Louis cock and God must be there somewhere, because all Harry can hear are angels singing loudly in his head while he works hard on Louis’ erection.  
He sucks the head and then plants kisses on the shaft and keeps licking until he reaches the pretty pink hole in the middle of Louis’ round soft cheeks.  
He licks a fat stripe on Louis’ hole, making his boyfriend moan loudly and Harry doesn’t care if they can hear him, he actually wants them to hear him because if this isn’t the most beautiful symphony ever played his name is not Harry Styles anymore.  
He keeps licking and lapping and sucking occasionally flicking his tongue inside Louis’ ring of muscle, so tight and so hot…  
“Ha-Harry,” Louis pleads “Please, stop teasing me.”  
Harry smirks and goes back to Louis cheeks, biting the soft flesh, before moving to Louis’ balls, sucking them hungrily, while his hand begins to stroke his boyfriend’s cock slowly.  
“I want you to come in my mouth,” he says, his lips already on Louis’ head.  
He knows they won’t have sex tonight, not while stoned and in Greg’s bed. But he is determined to make Louis come, so he start sucking again, his head bobbing up and down, Louis arching his back, chanting Harry’s name like a mantra.  
A few seconds later Louis shoots down Harry’s throat, laying boneless on the sheets.  
“You okay love?” Harry asks.  
“More than okay,” Louis breathes, still coming down from his high. “Do you want me to take care of you now?”  
Harry shakes his head and bows to kiss Louis.  
“What about we go to my place?” he asks “Robin and my mom are out and…”  
But he can’t finish his sentence because Louis’ tongue is in his mouth again.  
“What are we doing still here then?” he growls “Let’s go home!!!”  
“You are my home,” Harry purrs and Louis knows he’s gonna spend the rest of his life with him, because Harry is Louis’ home too.

***

Zayn and Louis are sitting under the tree in Louis’ garden, gossiping about their schoolmates, who’s dating who and who broke up and Nick because it’s always fun to talk about Nick.  
At the moment, though, they’re focused on Liam, who’s apparently freaking out, because he doesn’t know if he wants to go to the Fire Service College or not.  
“So he’s not coming tonight?” Louis asks, chewing on his bottom lip.  
“Nope, no lads night for him… he wants to stay with Soph… they need to talk about their future…”  
“She’s going to UAL, right?”  
“Yeah, she got in the London College of Fashion!! So if he goes to FSC they will only be able to see each other at holidays…” Zayn explains, a sad look on his face.  
  
They stay silent for a moment, Louis’ trying to look at least a tiny bit concerned for one of his best mates, but he can’t keep himself from smiling.  
He cares a lot about Liam and he wishes he can help him somehow, so he tries to frown a bit, he doesn’t want Zayn to think he’s an insensitive twat.  
His mate is looking at him with a curious light in the eyes and Louis stares back at him, a question lingering between them.  
“You had sex.”  
Okay, Zayn’s not asking. He’s stating it, how in hell does he know?  
“How in hell do you know that?” he asks and Zayn laughs.  
“I know now,” he smirks, and Louis slaps him on the back of his head.  
“It’s not funny!! For a sec I thought it was written on my forehead or something…”  
Zayn laughs again and then hugs Louis for a long minute, rubbing his back gently.  
“I’m so happy for you two guys,” he admits with a smile “you went through a lot in the past… oh my god it’s almost a year, isn’t it?”  
Louis nods happily.  
“Since Niall’s party last year at the end of summer… august 21st, I’ll never forget that night… as much as I’ll never forget the last one…”  
“So, how it was?” Zayn’s inquires, and Louis knows he’s not prying. He’s just a concerned friend and Louis loves him for that.  
“It was amazing,” he replies with a big smile “Harry is so attentive, he made me feel like I was the most precious thing in the world, like nothing else matters to him but satisfy all of my needs and desires. It was perfect and I’m so happy we waited until now.”  
  
Zayn looks at him expectantly and Louis lifts a questioning eyebrow.  
“What?”  
“I need details Tomlinson!!!”  
“What do you want to know?”  
“The answer to The Mother Of All Questions!!!”  
“The meaning of life?”  
“No you moron!! THE question! Who tops????”  
Louis rolls his eyes and giggles.  
“We… we kind of share that, really! We’re both…. Like… versatile? I love having him inside of me and I equally love being inside of him… We complete each other, like puzzle pieces…”  
“Oh my God stop please, you’re so cheesy,” Zayn interrupts him, a disgusted look on his handsome face.  
“You asked for it!!!!” Louis protests fervently. How very dare he.  
“I asked for the hot stuff, not for an hyperglycemic crisis”  
Louis laughs and then grins at him, a mischievous light in his eyes.  
  
“What about you and Niall, mate? Did you go all in already?” he asks, enjoying the rare view of Zayn’s cheeks turning red.  
“We…” he starts, shyness so clear in his voice, Louis’ completely amused by it “we are taking it slow… Niall is a bit unexperienced you know, so I can’t just take him like I would do with a random one night stand…”  
Louis kisses his nose before hugging him very tight.  
“You’re a kind man Zayn Malik,” he says, petting his hair and comforting him the best he can.  
“I’m so fucked up Louis,” Zayn admits “I’ve never fallen so hard for someone before, it’s like he’s all I can think about… He makes me feel like I can give up everything for him, my family, my life, my aspirations… and I don’t think it’s healthy, you know?”  
Louis nods against Zayn’s shoulder because he perfectly understands what his friend’s talking about.  
“I feel the same way,” he reveals “about Harry, I mean. And it’s not something you can explain using your brain, it’s a whole level of consciousness that you don't realize you're experiencing until you’re in too deep to get rid of it. I don’t know if this make any sense to you…”  
Zayn looks at him with a tentative smile and nods.  
“It’s gonna be okay Z, you’re gonna be very happy I promise”  
  
They keep hugging for a while but then Zayn looks at him and a deep frown appears on his face.  
Louis’ smile seems genuine, of course, but something’s not quite right, Zayn can feel it.  
“What’s wrong?” he asks and Louis sighs, knowing his friend must have noticed his feelings.  
“It’s Harry… he… he’s literally freaking out about this London thing and it’s all my fault.”  
Zayn frowns again. Harry’s always so in control… for as long as he knew him, he never lost his chill once, he’s always prepared to face whatever life would put him through.  
“We are trying to find an accommodation that suits us and that won’t separate us. So we can’t stay in the dorms because we’re not sure we’ll end up together there, and everything near campus is so expensive… we both chose full time degrees so we can’t have a full time job… there are too many ifs that can jeopardize this, and I’m trying to stay calm but it’s not that easy…”  
Zayn’s about to reply that he can help them, when Niall and Harry arrive in Louis’ garden, carrying a crate of beer and two bags of groceries.  
  
“Hello there,” Louis says, getting up from under the tree and greeting his boyfriend with a kiss, taking the bags from him and putting them under the porch.  
Niall does the same with the beers and then goes straight to sit on Zayn’s lap, before the other boy can even think to get up.  
“Missed me babe?” Zayn asks and Niall blushes, but let his boyfriend kiss him deeply, and Louis giggles quietly, nose buried in Harry’s neck.  
“Oh my God, find a room you guys,” a female voice comes from the access to the garden.  
“Make it two rooms and it’s a deal,” Harry replies running straight to the voice owner, hugging her tight.  
“Hi Gemma,” the curly boy says, smiling softly, clearly happy to see his sister.  
“Hi little brother!!” Gemma exclaims, maybe even happier than he is.  
“How did you get here???” Harry inquires, not leaving her side.  
“Mom brought me! She’s inside with her new friend and the little girls. I think you have to introduce me to some of your new mates now, am I right?”  
Harry laughs and turns to face Louis and the other lads, smiling big.  
“Guys this is Gemma, my older sister. Gemma, do you remember Niall, right?”  
“I certainly do! How are you my little Irish Imp?” she cheers, hugging the blond guy and looking curiously at Zayn. “So you got yourself a boyfriend!! Thought you have sworn your undying love to me!!!!”  
“I was five, you brat,” Niall retorts, his face as red as a tomato “and you told me I was an imaginary creature and that you couldn’t love me back. So shut up please.”  
Zayn cackles and introduce himself, whilst putting a protective arm around Niall’s shoulders.  
“Nice to meet you Zayn,” Gemma smiles, turning her head to look at the cute boy beside her little brother.  
“So you must be Louis,” she says.  
Louis smiles shyly at her, a bit embarrassed because this is Gemma fucking Styles, she was a legend in their school and she’s Harry’s favourite person in the world so, yeah, he’s totally awestruck right now.  
He offers a trembling hand but, instead of shaking it, she brings him in, hugging him tightly like they’ve known each other forever.  
“He can’t stop talking about you,” she whispers in Louis’ ear “make him cry and I will kill you, am I clear?”  
Louis nods against her shoulder and she let him go.  
“I’m so happy to be here,” she shouts taking Niall and Zayn each under one arm and moving towards the porch swings. “So, I’ve been told you’re gonna have a lads night!! May I join you?” she asks and Louis sighs heavily.  
A pair of strong arms embrace him from behind, Harry’s mouth already on his neck, planting light kisses on his overheated skin.  
“Your sister is scary as hell,” he admits, covering Harry’s arms with his own.  
“Did she promise to kill you?” the younger boy asks and Louis sighs again.  
“She did, even though it wasn’t necessary”  
“And why not?”  
“Because I will never intentionally hurt you. Because I love you so much my heart bleeds at the mere thought of making you cry.”  
“Louis…”  
Harry is out of words. The last month has been a tough one for him, trying to find an accommodation and a job that fits with his uni schedule, deciding what bring to London and what left behind. Harry has felt so lost, like he is somehow failing, and he really can’t explain how good it is knowing that Louis is there for him and that, wherever life will take them, they will be together and happy and nothing will never change that.  
“I love you so much Louis,” he declares “Let’s leave this place behind us and run towards our future together.”  
“Oh shut up you sap,” Louis giggles and, when Harry kisses him, he knows everything’s finally alright.

***

“What does it mean you didn’t get in? I remember you telling me they accepted you!!” Louis says to Liam, his eyes wide opened in disbelief.  
Liam snorts loudly, slapping Louis on the back of his head.  
“Ouch!” he complains “What was that for?”  
“Because you don’t listen!!!” Liam retorts, very tempted to slap him again.  
“I said I won’t go to the Fire Service College and I’ll try out for the firehouses training directly in London.”  
Louis is confused. If he did get in why isn’t he going to Gloucestershire? It’s like he’s giving up his dream to became a Chief Fire Officer and work for the Ministry of Defense Fire Service.  
He says that much to Liam and his mate becomes suddenly sad.  
“I know, that was… still is my dream, you know? But I can chase it even if I’ll go to London!! I still can have a great career and save people like I’ve always wanted to do. My dream is still there and maybe one day I’ll still get it, you know? But I want to try London first. I need it.”  
“But why?? Why you chose London over the FSC?”  
Liam is about to answer when Sophia calls for him from inside the house.  
The smile on Liam’s face explains everything by itself. He’s about to take the longest road to achieve his dream so he doesn’t have to separate from her.  
If there’s something Louis can understand very well is the need to stay with the person you’re in love with.  
He nearly went mad at the possibility of being separated from Harry and, even now, despite knowing they're going to be together, the mere thought of being apart makes him shiver.  
He turns around to look at the meat roasting on the barbecue and smiles sadly to himself, stupidly pessimistic thoughts fulfilling his brain.  
He is in Niall backyard, working on the barbecue, while the other lads are setting the pool for that night party and Harry is making pasta, salad and some other healthy stuff in the kitchen.  
That’s gonna be their last night together in Manchester. The day after, Harry and Louis are gonna leave for London. They found a hostel where they can stay until they find the right place to live in, mostly because being there is essential if they want to visit apartments and also have a couple of interviews in order to find a job.  
They have everything packed already, their train leaves at 2.35 PM from Piccadilly Station and will arrive to Euston around 4.40. Louis is scared because they only booked for a week, and he’s not sure they’ll be able to find a place to stay in during that short amount of time. But they have no other option so they have to take the risk.  
  
Harry arrives right in the middle of his panicking train of thoughts. Sometimes Louis thinks his boyfriend has some sort of sixth sense that alerts him whenever Louis is not completely okay.  
The curly boy hugs him from behind, planting a kiss on his neck.  
“Where’s Liam?” he asks, covering Louis’ right shoulder in little butterfly kisses “And why are you shirtless?”  
“Liam’s inside with Sophia,” Louis explains, relaxing under Harry’s soft touch “And you’re one to talk, Mr I Have To Make Everyone See My Perfect Six Pack.”  
Harry barks a laugh and covers his mouth with his hand, making Louis giggle quietly.  
They have plenty of time to worry about their future. Now it’s time to relax and be happy with their friends before they part ways.

***

The party is as fun as it gets. There are people making out inside and outside the pool, inside the reception room and in the rooms upstairs and Louis’ gonna freak out because he wants to stay alone with Harry for fucking ten minutes, but apparently there are no free spots.  
He’s also just spotted one of the Clark twins having a go with a guy from the swim team, and hell yeah, that’s karma hitting on their asshole of a mother.  
Fuck you Amanda, yours sincerely, God.  
  
He and Harry are making their way across other people, when they see all of their friends in a corner of the garden, sitting on the white beach beds Niall’s mom’s so proud of.  
“Hey guys!!! Why are you all here?” Harry asks happily, sitting near Stan and Laura, dragging his boyfriend in his lap.  
“We’re gossiping about the Clark twins, of course.”  
“Have you seen Robert having a go with Jon too??”  
Liam shakes his head.  
“We saw Robert AND Ethan having a go with Jon TOGETHER.”  
Louis chokes on his own breath.  
“What? Really? Oh My God.”  
“A threesome with two identical twins is a recurrent erotic dream Louis, you should know that,” Stan scolds him but he can’t finish his sentence because Laura is hitting him with her purse.  
“You moron, have you fantasized on my sister??” she yells at him, while all the others try to conceal a laugh. Poor Stan, he definitely said the wrong thing at the wrong time.  
“A man can have fantasies you know,” he tries to defend himself “but I don’t like your twin as much as I like you, I fell for your personality not for your body.”  
“And this is how a man keeps his girlfriend happy,” Harry murmurs in Louis ear “Would you like to have a go with my hypothetical twin brother?”  
Louis’ mind blows up with dirty thoughts.  
“I hate you,” he says and Harry giggles, mocking him for his red cheeks and his perverted mind.  
  
Zayn clears his throat a couple of times, instantly catching the attention of everyone in the group.  
“Something came up,” he declares. “I’ve been told that some of you are panicking over finding an accommodation in London and some of you don’t want to be separated either. We already have to leave our beloved Stan behind.”  
“I’m not dead you know?” Stan laughs but Niall shushes him.  
“This is very important,” he whispers and Stan turns quiet. He has never seen his mates in such a solemn mood.  
“The more I was thinking about our situation, the more I thought we need a quick solution. First of all I have to announce that I don’t want to be a lawyer, as much as Niall doesn’t want to be a business man.”  
Louis mouth falls on the ground. He really didn’t see that coming.  
“As you all know, we applied for King’s College” Zayn continues “but we haven’t told you that the faculties we chose were different from Oxford’s.”  
“I’m the one who wants to be a lawyer,” Niall says proudly.  
“And I want to be a doctor,” Zayn reveals and their friends clap at the news.  
Louis thinks that follow your dream is the best way to not be annoyed by school, so if those are their choices, he will support them as long as they need him.  
“At the very beginning we applied as a joke,” Zayn frowns “We were sure our parents would never allow us to choose a different path, but we were wrong.”  
“Both my family and Zayn’s welcomed our choices very well and promised us all the support we need. And here come the biggest news.”  
“I know Liam and Sophia already found somewhere to live, so this is for you Harry and Louis”  
Louis’ eyebrows almost pop off his forehead. What is he talking about?  
“You both told us how scared you are about not finding the right place at the right price and how much this is a big obstacle between you and your happiness. The thing is, I own an attic in Soho. It’s a bit posh and some sort of an open space, but it has two big bedrooms and we need just one of them, so if you want to share it...”  
Louis literally jumps from Harry’s lap to Zayn’s and starts to plant kisses all over his head while Harry goes to hug his own best mate, a chant of thank you coming from him.  
“Of course we want, oh my God, this is the best news ever, I mean, I’m going to London with my best friends and my boyfriend to study what I have dreamt all my life… it’s just… I think I’m gonna faint...”  
Louis fakes a blackout, falling on the grass and rolling his eyes until the white comes out.  
“For God’s sake Louis, you’re so overdramatic I swear,” Harry laughs, helping him to get up and hugging him tightly.  
Louis’ eyes are shining so brightly and the wind is caressing Harry’s curls. The night is amazing and they’re gonna have everything they want very soon.  
Harry looks at his boyfriend and, of course, he starts to sing.

 _“There's a lightning in your eyes, I can't deny_  
_Then there's me inside a sinking boat running out of time”_  
_Without you I'll never make it out alive_  
_But I know, yes I know, we'll be alright.”_  
With Louis by his side no one’s gonna stop them. Fear and sadness are long gone. It’s time to go and finally live their dreams. Together.

 _“There's a devil in your smile, it's chasing me_  
_And every time I turn around it's only gaining speed.”_  
Liam can watch his dream looking back at him, but he knows he’s made the right choice.  
_“There's a moment when you finally realize_  
_There's no way you can change the rolling tide_  
_But I know, yes I know, that I'll be fine.”_  
He’s going to save lives and live with the woman of his dreams, what else could he wish for? Nothing because this is what he wants and what he’s going to finally get.

They all join in the chorus, jumping around the pool and dancing with the other guests.  
_“This time I'm ready to run_  
_Escape from the city and follow the sun_  
_'Cause I wanna be yours, don't you wanna be mine?_  
_I don't wanna get lost in the dark of the night.”_  
“Always yours” Niall says and Zayn kisses him just because he can.

 _“This time I'm ready to run_  
_Wherever you are is the place I belong_  
_'Cause I wanna be free, and I wanna be young_  
_I will never look back now I'm ready to run_  
_I'm ready to run.”_

 _“There's a future in my life I can't foresee_  
_Unless, of course, I stay on course and keep you next to me."_  
Niall looks at Zayn like he is the sun and maybe he is. They glow together, happiness irradiating from them and brightening the air around.

 _“There will always be the kind that criticize_  
_But I know, yes, I know we'll be alright.”_  
Louis gives a glance to Robert and Ethan and he knows there will be many people as narrow minded as their mother is. But, as long as he has Harry, he doesn’t really care.

 _“This time I'm ready to run_  
_Escape from the city and follow the sun_  
_'Cause I wanna be yours, don't you wanna be mine?_  
_I don't wanna get lost in the dark of the night_  
_This time I'm ready to run_  
_Wherever you are is the place I belong_  
_'Cause I wanna be free, and I wanna be young_  
_I will never look back now I'm ready to run...”_

 _“This time I'm ready to run_  
_I'd give everything that I got for your love...”_  
Zayn can’t see his future now, of course, but he’s certain that whatever happens to him, Niall will be by his side because they’re soulmates and soulmates share their lives together.

 _“This time I'm ready to run_  
_Escape from the city and follow the sun...”_  
“Let’s go baby,” Louis says and kisses Harry, as if tomorrow was never to come.

And in the end they all join in, singing out loud, completely inebriated by their own happiness.  
_“'Cause I wanna be yours, don't you wanna be mine?_  
_I don't wanna get lost in the dark of the night.”_  
They all jump in the pool, followed by the back-up dancers and start the Dancing Queen choreography, laughing like mad men.  
_“This time I'm ready to run_  
_Wherever you are is the place I belong_  
_'Cause I wanna be free, and I wanna be young_  
_I will never look back, now I'm ready to run_  
_I'm ready to run."_

They are all panting heavily, big smiles on their faces. Summer is ending but their life is starting now and, for God’s sake, they’re fucking ready for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can’t believe I have already finished Act1, it’s the first time I write so much in English.  
> Thank you Harry and Louis, you inspired me with your undying love and thanks to all the amazing writers here on Ao3, I owe you a lot.  
> To my Betas, I love you all.

**Author's Note:**

> One Direction are not mine, neither are their songs but i enjoyed a lot using all of them.  
> I'm gonna update every 7-10 days but be patient with me because I'm a single working mom and I don't have much spare time!!  
> You can find me on http://seifrancy.tumblr.com/ and on twitter @seifrancy  
> Come to say Hi if you please ^_^


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